To protect themselves from harsh environments, bacteria wrap themselves with a biofilm slime. After a while, this slime becomes old, so that bacteria need to break biofilms and free themselves from them. This article will explain this mechanism of how bacteria break biofilms apart.

Some bacteria can grow in the environment on water systems or pipelines. These constructs are usually made of metal and the metabolic activity of bacteria can lead to degradation of the metal. This then also leads to corrosion of the material.

The problem is that corrosion can seriously affect the functioning of the pipes which can also result in serious health issues.

Desulfovibrius vulgaris likes its water pipes

One bacterium that likes to grow on metallic surfaces in the soil is the bacterium Desulfovibrio vulgaris. This interesting bacterium can live with sulphur rather than oxygen and has not been fully characterised yet.

The problem with bacteria like Desulfovibrio vulgaris is that they like to form biofilms on metallic surfaces in the warm and wet soil.

Biofilms protect bacteria from the environment like a house protects us from the weather. Biofilms can also protect from antibiotics. This is why scientists are looking for different means to break down the biofilm and to inhibit the growth of bacteria.

A bacterium knows how to break biofilms

The researchers looked at the genes of Desulfovibrio vulgaris with bioinformatic tools. They found a few genes which were likely to inhibit biofilms. The researchers chose those genes because they were similar to other enzymes from other bacteria with such ability.

They then characterised one of these enzymes in more detail. And they found that it works like a scissor that breaks biofilms of Desulfovibrio vulgaris. This scissor also breaks the biofilm of other bacteria from different families.

Previously, scientists found these kinds of scissors in other bacteria. But so far they always focused on biofilms formed by bacteria in hospital settings. Now, they even found a new method to break down and inhibit biofilms that are formed by bacteria in the environment.

Why do bacteria produce scissors?

Do they no like living in the biofilm house?

To answer this question, we need to understand that the bacterial biofilm lifestyle works as a cycle. Bacteria build biofilms and use them as houses. As soon as nutrients are scarce or there are too many bacteria within a biofilm, some bacteria cut themselves loose and start looking for a new place to live. Once they found this, they will build a new biofilm house.

To cut loose from the biofilm they need to break down parts of the biofilm for which they use those scissors. Once they cut themselves free from the biofilm they start swimming and looking for a new place to live.

By discovering these new kinds of scissors, scientists now have novel tools to combat bacterial biofilms. These tools could inhibit bacterial biofilms in many different settings like the environment or in hospitals.