ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2004
Self-generated diversity produces "insurance effects" in biofilm communities.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 254 papers.
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Who cites it
254 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Staphylococcus aureus biofilms: molecular mechanisms, resistance determinants, and emerging therapeutic strategies.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
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- Restoration of Nitrate Respiration in Pseudomonas aeruginosa under Growth Limitations.Microbes and environments · 2026Article
- Competition between Pseudomonas species constrains ecological diversification in polymicrobial biofilms.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
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- Rhizosphere Growth-Promoting Bacteria Enhance Oat Growth by Improving Microbial Stability and Soil Organic Matter in the Saline Soil of the Qaidam Basin.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- High diversity of nitrifying bacteria and archaea in biofilms from a subsea tunnel.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2025Article
- Hypermutability bypasses genetic constraints in SCV phenotypic switching in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- Expression ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Article
- Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilm assembly and self-dispersion: bacteria and matrix dynamics.International microbiology : the official journal of the Spanish Society for Microbiology · 2024Article
- Nattokinase, a Subtilisin-like Alkaline-Serine Protease, Reduces Mutacin Activity by Inactivating the Competence-Stimulating Peptide inPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Flagellar interference with plasmid uptake in biofilms: a joint experimental and modeling study.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
- Divergent molecular strategies drive evolutionary adaptation to competitive fitness in biofilm formation.The ISME journal · 2024Article
- Plasmids, a molecular cornerstone of antimicrobial resistance in the One Health era.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2024Review
- Transcriptomic profiles of Mannheimia haemolytica planktonic and biofilm associated cells.PloS one · 2024Article
- Metabolic exchanges are ubiquitous in natural microbial communities.Nature microbiology · 2023Review
194 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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3 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Diversity generally protects communities from unstable environmental conditions. This principle, known as the "insurance hypothesis," has been tested in many different ecosystems. Here we show that the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa undergoes extensive genetic diversification during short-term growth in biofilm communities. The induced genetic changes are produced by a recA-dependent mechanism and affect multiple traits, including the behavior of the bacteria in biofilms. Some biofilm-derived variants exhibit an increased ability to disseminate, whereas others manifest accelerated biofilm formation. Furthermore, the presence of these functionally diverse bacteria increases the ability of biofilms to resist an environmental stress. These findings suggest that self-generated diversity in biofilms provides a form of biological insurance that can safeguard the community in the face of adverse conditions.
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