The Great Escape: Mechanisms for dispersal of microbial communities from surfaces

细菌会对各种环境因素做出反应，包括营养浓度，以优化其生长策略。一个关键的生长策略是形成生物膜或表面相关的微生物群落。本项目的目的是确定cAMP介导的饥饿诱导细菌生物膜分散的分子途径。我们的初步数据表明，cAMP途径与其他细胞内的第二信使，如c-di-GMP，控制分散重叠。此外，这些第二信使可能在亚细胞池的水平上起作用，与密切相关的蛋白质复合物相互作用，以控制复杂的行为，如生物膜的形成和分散。

Bacteria respond to a variety of environmental cues, including nutrient concentration, to optimise their growth strategy. One key growth strategy is the formation of biofilms or surface associated microbial communities. The aim of this project is to determine the molecular pathway for cAMP mediated starvation induced dispersal of bacterial biofilms. Our preliminary data suggest that the cAMP pathway overlaps with other intracellular second messengers, such as c-di-GMP, to control dispersal. Further, these second messengers may act at the level of subcellular pools that interact with closely associated protein complexes to control complex behaviours such as biofilm formation and dispersal.