Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

[Applications of biofilm in environmental pollution control and the related challenges].

This review examines biofilm structure, formation mechanisms, and community composition as applied to environmental pollution control, covering removal of heavy metals and organic pollutants, and discussing emerging challenges including plastisphere dynamics, antibiotic resistance gene spread, and pathogen accumulation in biofilm-pollutant interactions.

2024 PubMed 1 citations
Article Tier 2

A Comprehensive Review of Biofilm Composition and Factors Affecting Efficacy in Microbial Bioremediation

This review examines biofilm-mediated bioremediation, analyzing biofilm formation, structural diversity, and biochemical degradation pathways used to break down organic pollutants, heavy metals, microplastics, and pharmaceutical contaminants, while also discussing environmental factors and challenges such as antimicrobial resistance that affect biofilm efficacy in real-world remediation applications.

2025 International Journal of Plant and Environment
Article Tier 2

Investigating Biofilms: Advanced Methods for Comprehending Microbial Behavior and Antibiotic Resistance

This review summarizes recent advances in biofilm research, focusing on how communities of microorganisms form protective layers on surfaces and become resistant to antibiotics. The sticky matrix that holds biofilms together plays a key role in spreading antibiotic resistance genes between bacteria. While not directly about microplastics, the findings are relevant because microplastics in the environment serve as surfaces where these resistant biofilms can form and spread.

2024 Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark 36 citations
Article Tier 2

Biofilm matrix cloaks bacterial quorum sensing chemoattractants from predator detection

Researchers found that bacterial biofilm matrix physically sequesters quorum sensing chemoattractant molecules, preventing detection by predatory bacterivores and providing the biofilm community with a chemical camouflage against grazing pressure.

2022 The ISME Journal 37 citations
Article Tier 2

Multiple Bacterial Strategies to Survive Antibiotic Pressure: A Review

This review examined multiple bacterial strategies for surviving antibiotic pressure, including genetic mutations, efflux pumps, biofilm formation, and horizontal gene transfer, highlighting how resistance reservoirs exist beyond hospital settings.

2023 Preprints.org 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Biofilm-mediated bioremediation of xenobiotics and heavy metals: a comprehensive review of microbial ecology, molecular mechanisms, and emerging biotechnological applications

This review explores how bacterial biofilms can be used to break down environmental pollutants, including heavy metals, pesticides, oil spills, and microplastics. Researchers found that the unique structure of biofilms gives them superior pollutant-degrading abilities compared to free-floating bacteria, and new advances like CRISPR gene editing and nanoparticle integration are making them even more effective. The study suggests that biofilm-based approaches offer a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to tackle a wide range of contamination problems.

2025 3 Biotech 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Factors Affecting Biofilm Formation and the Effects of These Factors on Bacteria

This review examined the many factors—including strain type, temperature, pH, surface properties, and hydrodynamic conditions—that affect bacterial biofilm formation, and discusses how biofilms influence bacterial behavior, antibiotic resistance, and pathogenicity.

2025 IntechOpen eBooks 4 citations
Article Tier 2

The Influence of Coalescent Microbiotic Particles From Water and Soil on the Evolution and Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance

This review examines how microbiotic particles in water and soil serve as hotspots for bacterial interactions, facilitating the evolution and horizontal transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes between ecologically distant bacterial species through biofilm formation on particle surfaces.

2022 Frontiers in Environmental Science 22 citations
Article Tier 2

A Bibliography Study of Biofilm Life Cycle

This bibliography study reviews the biofilm life cycle -- encompassing initial attachment, irreversible attachment, maturation, and dispersal -- and its implications for medicine, environmental science, and industrial applications. The review synthesizes key literature on the molecular and ecological mechanisms driving biofilm formation and identifies research gaps relevant to biofilm management and control.

2024 Preprints.org 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Quorum Sensing Regulates Bacterial Processes That Play a Major Role in Marine Biogeochemical Cycles

This review synthesizes knowledge of quorum sensing in marine bacteria, examining how cell-to-cell chemical communication coordinates bacterial behaviors including biofilm formation, bioluminescence, and organic matter cycling that drive marine biogeochemical processes. The authors identify quorum sensing disruption as an understudied consequence of chemical pollution, with potential to alter nutrient cycling in ocean ecosystems.

2022 Frontiers in Marine Science 47 citations
Article Tier 2

Phylogenetic Constitution and Survival of Microbial Biofilms Formed on the Surface of Polyethylene Composites Protected with Polyguanidine Biocides

Researchers fabricated polyethylene composites containing immobilized polyguanidine biocides and tested their effectiveness against multispecies microbial biofilms reconstructed from environmental isolates. Polyguanidine biocide suppressed binary and multispecies biofilm growth with a cumulative effect over time, disrupting dense three-dimensional biofilm structures primarily during later formation stages, though cooperative interactions within binary biofilms reduced biocide effectiveness.

2023 Coatings 4 citations
Article Tier 2

The Importance of Biofilms to the Fate and Effects of Microplastics

This review examines how biofilms — communities of microorganisms that form on microplastic surfaces — affect the fate and ecological effects of plastic pollution. Biofilm formation alters how microplastics are transported, ingested, and degraded in the environment, and the plastisphere can harbor pathogens and antibiotic-resistant bacteria that may pose risks to human health.

2020 IntechOpen eBooks 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Eukaryotic diversity of marine biofouling from coastal to offshore areas

Researchers compared eukaryotic diversity and taxonomic composition of marine biofouling communities collected across coastal to offshore environments using multiple metabarcoding approaches, characterizing the full range of taxa present in biofilms on submerged surfaces as a foundation for antifouling and plastic pollution research.

2022 Frontiers in Marine Science 17 citations
Article Tier 2

Integration of Transcriptome and Metabolome Reveals the Genes and Metabolites Involved in Bifidobacterium bifidum Biofilm Formation

Transcriptome and metabolome analysis of Bifidobacterium bifidum biofilm formation identified key genes and metabolic pathways involved in surface attachment, finding that sugar metabolism, stress response genes, and specific surface proteins are upregulated in biofilm-forming cells compared to planktonic cultures.

2021 International Journal of Molecular Sciences 50 citations
Article Tier 2

Genomic and proteomic profiles of biofilms on microplastics are decoupled from artificial surface properties

Genomic and proteomic analysis of biofilms on marine microplastics showed that community composition and functional profiles were primarily shaped by environmental conditions rather than the specific surface properties of the plastic substrate.

2021 Environmental Microbiology 75 citations
Article Tier 2

Quorum sensing bacteria in microplastics epiphytic biofilms and their biological characteristics which potentially impact marine ecosystem

Researchers collected microplastics from the ocean and characterised the quorum-sensing bacteria living in their biofilms — microbes that communicate chemically to coordinate group behaviours like biofilm formation and antibiotic production. Eight different quorum-sensing bacterial strains were isolated from polypropylene and PVC microplastics, and their signalling molecules (AHLs) were profiled. The findings show that microplastics act as rafts dispersing complex microbial communities, including potentially harmful antibiotic-producing and biofilm-forming bacteria, across the global ocean.

2023 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Marine microbial biofilms on diverse abiotic surfaces

This review provides an overview of how microbial biofilms form on various non-living surfaces in the ocean, including microplastics, seafloor sediments, and submerged structures. Researchers describe how these surface-attached microbial communities have unique compositions and functions that influence ocean ecology and biochemical processes. The study also examines how biofilms contribute to biocorrosion and biofouling, highlighting their broad significance for both natural marine systems and human-built infrastructure.

2025 Frontiers in Marine Science 18 citations
Article Tier 2

Quorum Sensing: Not Just a Bridge Between Bacteria

This review covers quorum sensing -- the chemical communication system bacteria use to coordinate group behavior -- and how it can be disrupted to fight infections and prevent harmful biofilm formation. The paper notes that microplastics are among the materials being explored to modulate these bacterial communication systems, which is relevant because bacteria colonizing microplastic surfaces in the environment may use quorum sensing to form biofilms that affect ecosystems and human health.

2025 MicrobiologyOpen 18 citations
Article Tier 2

New insight into the effect of microplastics on antibiotic resistance and bacterial community of biofilm

Researchers found that different types of microplastics promote distinct biofilm communities and enhance antibiotic resistance gene proliferation compared to natural substrates, suggesting microplastics serve as unique platforms for the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

2023 Chemosphere 30 citations
Article Tier 2

High-throughput sequencing data of the microbiota and antibiotic resistance genes from biofilms on polystyrene and nylon rope incubated in Bergen harbor.

Researchers used high-throughput metagenomics sequencing to characterize the microbiota and antibiotic resistance genes in biofilms ('plastisphere') formed on polystyrene and nylon ropes submerged in Bergen harbour, Norway for four weeks.

2025 Data in brief
Article Tier 2

Plastisphere showing unique microbiome and resistome different from activated sludge

Researchers used metagenomics to compare the microbiome and resistome of PVC plastisphere biofilms with activated sludge, finding that microplastic surfaces enriched distinct pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes that differ from the surrounding sludge community.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 32 citations
Article Tier 2

Novel Insights into the Antimicrobial Resistance and Strategies to Curb the Menace

This review covers the mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance emergence and spread, summarizing novel strategies to combat resistance including phage therapy, antivirulence compounds, and enhanced surveillance, and discusses how environmental contamination including microplastics may contribute to resistance.

2024 Journal of Pure and Applied Microbiology 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Marine microplastic-associated biofilms – a review

This review synthesizes research on biofilm communities forming on marine microplastics, covering their composition, formation dynamics, and potential consequences for both plastic fate and ocean microbiology. The authors highlight that plastic-associated biofilms can include pathogens and toxin producers, and that the plastisphere community differs meaningfully from the surrounding seawater microbiome.

2015 Environmental Chemistry 463 citations
Article Tier 2

Microbial Community in a Wastewater System

Researchers characterized microbial community composition in a wastewater treatment system, examining how treatment stage and operational conditions shape bacterial diversity and functional potential relevant to pollutant degradation.

2024