Roberto Kolter
Microbial Biofilms

In most natural settings, bacteria are found predominantly in surface-attached populations comprised of single or multiple species, commonly referred to as "biofilms". Biofilm formation is regulated by environmental signals and bears many similarities to the development of multicellular organisms. Work in our laboratory addresses the genetic and molecular mechanisms that regulate the development of these communities. We are isolating and characterizing biofilm mutants in several bacterial species and are carrying out microscopic analysis of cell-to-surface and cell-to-cell interactions required for biofilm formation, maintenance and dissolution as well as investigating ways in which interspecies interactions influence microbial development within biofilm communities. Our laboratory also studies of bacterial genome evolution as approached through comparative genomic studies of multiple isolates of a single species isolating and characterizing biofilmmutants in several bacterial species.)

Publications:
Reguera, G. and Kolter, R. 2005. Virulence and the environment: a novel role for Vibrio cholerae toxin-coregulated pili in biofilm formation on chitin. J. Bacteriol. 187: 3553-3555.

Kolter, R. 2005. Surfacing views of biofilm biology. Trends Microbiol. 13: 1-2.

Bomchil, N., Watrick, P. and Kolter, R. 2003. Identification and characterization of a Vibrio cholerae gene, mbaA, involved in maintenance of biofilm architecture. J. Bacteriol. 185: 1384-1390.

Wolf, S.G., Frenkel, D., Arad, T., Finkel, S.E., Kolter, R. and Minsky, A. 1999. Biocrystallization: a stress-induced strategy for wide range DNA protection. Nature 400: 83-85.