SnapShot: Electrochemical Communication in Biofilms

Dong-Yeon D Lee; Arthur Prindle; Jintao Liu; Gürol M Süel

doi:10.1016/j.cell.2017.06.026

SnapShot: Electrochemical Communication in Biofilms

Cell. 2017 Jun 29;170(1):214-214.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.06.026.

Authors

Dong-Yeon D Lee¹, Arthur Prindle¹, Jintao Liu¹, Gürol M Süel²

Affiliations

¹ Molecular Biology Section, Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
² Molecular Biology Section, Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA; San Diego Center for Systems Biology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA; Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.

PMID: 28666120
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.06.026

Abstract

The role of electricity in biological systems was first appreciated through electrical stimulation experiments performed by Luigi Galvani in the 18^th century. These pioneering experiments demonstrated that the behavior of living tissues is governed by the flow of electrochemical species-an insight that gave rise to the modern field of electrophysiology. Since then, electrophysiology has largely remained a bastion of neuroscience. However, exciting recent developments have demonstrated that even simple bacteria residing in communities use electrochemical communication to coordinate population-level behaviors. These recent works are defining the emerging field of bacterial biofilm electrophysiology. To view this SnapShot, open or download the PDF.

MeSH terms

Bacteria / classification
Bacteria / metabolism
Bacterial Physiological Phenomena
Biofilms*
Electrophysiological Phenomena