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Updated: Dec 7, 2025

Live Cell Analysis of Shear Stress on Pseudomonas aeruginosa Using an Automated Higher-Throughput Microfluidic System
Published on: January 16, 2019
Multicellular and unicellular responses of microbial biofilms to stress
Daniel K H Rode1,2, Praveen K Singh1, Knut Drescher1,2,3
1Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 16, D-35043Marburg, Germany.
Abstract:
Biofilms are a ubiquitous mode of microbial life and display an increased tolerance to different stresses. Inside biofilms, cells may experience both externally applied stresses and internal stresses that emerge as a result of growth in spatially structured communities. In this review, we discuss the spatial scales of different stresses in the context of biofilms, and if cells in biofilms respond to these stresses as a collection of individual cells, or if there are multicellular properties associated with the response. Understanding the organizational level of stress responses in microbial communities can help to clarify multicellular functions of biofilms.
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