ArticleMicrobiome2025
The mitigation of spatial constraint in porous environments enhances biofilm phylogenetic and functional diversity.
Article in Microbiome, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Bioenergy Cropping Reduces the Spatiotemporal Scaling of Soil Bacterial Biodiversity.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Pore-scale mass transfer heterogeneity shapes nutrient accessibility and functional assembly in porous microbial ecosystems.The ISME journal · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundPorous environments constitute ubiquitous microbial habitats across natural, engineered, and medical settings, offering extensive internal surfaces for biofilm development. While the physical structure of the porous environment is known to shape the spatial organization of biofilm inhabitants and their interspecific interactions, its influence on biofilm community structure and functional diversity remains largely unknown. This study employed microfluidic chips with varying micropillar diameters to create distinct pore spaces that impose different levels of spatial constraints on biofilm development. The impact of pore spaces on biofilm architecture, community assembly, and metabolic functions was investigated through in situ visualization and multi-omics technologies.
resultsLarger pore sizes were found to increase biofilm thickness and roughness while decreasing biofilm coverage over pore spaces. An increase in pore size resulted in reduced biofilm community evenness and increased phylogenetic diversity. Remarkably, biofilms in 300-μm pore spaces displayed the highest richness and the most complex and interconnected co-occurrence network pattern. The neutral model analysis demonstrated that biofilm assembly within different pore spaces was predominantly governed by stochastic processes, while deterministic processes became more influential as pore space increased. Exometabolomic analyses of effluents from the microfluidic chips further elucidated a significant correlation between the exometabolite profiles and biofilm community structure. The increased community richness in the 300-μm pore space was associated with the significantly higher exometabolome diversity.
conclusionsCollectively, our results indicate that increased pore space, which alleviated spatial constraints on biofilm development, resulted in the formation of thicker biofilms with enhanced phylogenetic and functional diversity. Video Abstract.
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