For the first time, an international research team led by Eleonora Secchi has succeeded in precisely characterizing a remarkably resilient biofilm structure, so-called streamers. They reveal how extracellular DNA (eDNA) is essential to the mechanical stability of the streamers and under what conditions they are formed. Furthermore, by controlling eDNA, the researchers control their formation. Given the ubiquity of streamers, these findings are relevant in the environmental and medical settings.
Original studies
- Eleonora Secchi, Giovanni Savorana, Alessandra Vitale, Leo Eberl, Roman Stocker and Roberto Rusconi
The structural role of bacterial eDNA in the formation of biofilm streamersvertical_align_bottom
PNAS (2022), doi: 10.1073/pnas.2113723119
- Giovanni Savorana, Jonasz Słomka, Roman Stocker, Roberto Rusconi, Eleonora Secchi
Uploaded to BioRxiv.org on 22 February 2022 (manuscript not yet peer-reviewed), doi: 10.1101/2022.02.22.481486
bioMatter Microfluidics Lab
Learn more about the research group led by Eleonara Secchivertical_align_bottom
