A Tale of Two Biofilms 英文参考文献.docVIP

Synopsis ATaleofTwoBiofilms KiraHeller* FreelanceScienceWriter,Oakland,California,UnitedStatesofAmerica One of the great advances in medical technology has unwittingly spawned a serious threat topublic health. Implanted medical devices, from cardiac stents to artificialhipjoints,arecommonlyinfected withbiofilms,complexmicrobialcommu- nities that can prove remarkably resistant tohostdefensesandtreatment.Itappears, however, that biofilms, even those arising from the same microbe species, may harborinnatedifferencesintheirresponse to treatments like antifungal agents. Un- derstanding how these microbe colonies might produce structures that appear similar but have very different physical propertiesandfunctionsisacriticalstepin figuring out how to overcome antimicro- bial resistance. To explore this process, Song Yi, Nidhi Sahni, Karla Daniels, David Soll, and their colleagues turned to the fungal pathogen Candida albicans , a major source of hospital-acquired biofilm infections. homozygotic and can then make the white/opaqueswitch. Like heterozygous cells, white homozy- gous cells can form biofilms on various surfaces. Previous studies showed that biofilms made of white homozygous cells actuallyfacilitatematingbetween embed- ded opaque cells, suggesting that a func- tion of these biofilms may be to conserve matingpheromonegradients.Biofilmfor- mationbyhomozygouscellsisinducedby thereleaseofapheromonethatisthefirst factor in a signal transduction pathway that terminates in the transcription factor Tec1, which binds to regulatory portions ofbiofilm-relatedgenes.However,hetero- zygous cells repress pheromone synthesis, indicating that their biofilm formation must be regulated by a different process. Tofindoutmoreabouthowthesebiofilms mightberegulated,theSolllabaskedtwo questions:dothetwotypesofbiofilmsplay differentrolesinthelifecycleofC.albicans, andaretheirbiofilmsregulatedbydiffer- entsignalingpathways? Candidaalbicansproducesan asexual (a/ a) and sexual (a/a