Why do some bacteria break away and again form flagella?
What tends to happen later on in biofilm development is that areas within that biofilm become nutrient depleted or there’s waste product accumulation or something else that makes it less conducive for those organisms to stay around in that particular biofilm. At that point in time, it now appears that there is a re-regulation or an up regulation of the genes associated with the free-swimming or suspended lifestyle. And what we’ve noticed in P. aeruginosa is that it appears those organisms now start to express the flagella again and down-regulate the pilli and will actually evacuate certain portions of the biofilm and swim back off into the nutrient environment. Where do they go then? We assume that they’re going downstream looking for a new place to colonize. Can you talk about your research? We’re looking for mechanisms to control the attachment of these organisms to the surface. If we can understand what genes are up- or down-regulated when an organism is in the biofilm mode of growt
