Biofilm formation is initiated by adhesion of individual bacteria to a surface. However, surface adhesion alone is not sufficient to form the complex community architecture of a biofilm. Surface-sensing creates bacterial awareness of their adhering state on the surface and is essential to initiate the phenotypic and genotypic changes that characterize the transition from initial bacterial adhesion to a biofilm. Physico-chemistry has been frequently applied to explain initial bacterial adhesion phenomena, including bacterial mass transport, role of substratum surface properties in initial adhesion and the transition from reversible to irreversible adhesion. However, also emergent biofilm properties, such as production of extracellular-polymeric-substances (EPS), can be surface-programmed. This review presents a four-step, comprehensive description of the role of physico-chemistry from initial bacterial adhesion to surface-programmed biofilm growth: (1) bacterial mass transport towards a surface, (2) reversible bacterial adhesion and (3) transition to irreversible adhesion and (4) cell wall deformation and associated emergent properties. Bacterial transport mostly occurs from sedimentation or convective-diffusion, while initial bacterial adhesion can be described by surface thermodynamic and Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO)-analyses, considering bacteria as smooth, inert colloidal particles. DLVO-analyses however, require precise indication of the bacterial cell surface, which is impossible due to the presence of bacterial surface tethers, creating a multi-scale roughness that impedes proper definition of the interaction distance in DLVO-analyses. Application of surface thermodynamics is also difficult, because initial bacterial adhesion is only an equilibrium phenomenon for a short period of time, when bacteria are attached to a substratum surface through few surface tethers. Physico-chemical bond-strengthening occurs in several minutes leading to irreversible adhesion due to progressive removal of interfacial water, conformational changes in cell surface proteins, re-orientation of bacteria on a surface and the progressive involvement of more tethers in adhesion. After initial bond-strengthening, adhesion forces arising from a substratum surface cause nanoscopic deformation of the bacterial cell wall against the elasticity of the rigid peptidoglycan layer positioned in the cell wall and the intracellular pressure of the cytoplasm. Cell wall deformation not only increases the contact area with a substratum surface, presenting another physico-chemical bond-strengthening mechanism, but is also accompanied by membrane surface tension changes. Membrane-located sensor molecules subsequently react to control emergent phenotypic and genotypic properties in biofilms, most notably adhesion-associated ones like EPS production. Moreover, also bacterial efflux pump systems may be activated or mechano-sensitive channels may be opened upon adhesion-induced cell wall deformation. The physico-chemical properties of the substratum surface thus control the response of initially adhering bacteria and through excretion of autoinducer molecules extend the awareness of their adhering state to other biofilm inhabitants who subsequently respond with similar emergent properties. Herewith, physico-chemistry is not only involved in initial bacterial adhesion to surfaces but also in what we here propose to call "surface-programmed" biofilm growth. This conclusion is pivotal for the development of new strategies to control biofilm formation on substratum surfaces, that have hitherto been largely confined to the initial bacterial adhesion phenomena.

We summarize different studies describing mechanisms through which bacteria in a biofilm mode of growth resist mechanical and chemical challenges. Acknowledging previous microscopic work describing voids and channels in biofilms that govern a biofilms response to such challenges, we advocate a more quantitative approach that builds on the relation between structure and composition of materials with their viscoelastic properties. Biofilms possess features of both viscoelastic solids and liquids, like skin or blood, and stress relaxation of biofilms has been found to be a corollary of their structure and composition, including the EPS matrix and bacterial interactions. Review of the literature on viscoelastic properties of biofilms in ancient and modern environments as well as of infectious biofilms reveals that the viscoelastic properties of a biofilm relate with antimicrobial penetration in a biofilm. In addition, also the removal of biofilm from surfaces appears governed by the viscoelasticity of a biofilm. Herewith, it is established that the viscoelasticity of biofilms, as a corollary of structure and composition, performs a role in their protection against mechanical and chemical challenges. Pathways are discussed to make biofilms more susceptible to antimicrobials by intervening with their viscoelasticity, as a quantifiable expression of their structure and composition.

Centrifugal damage has been known to alter bacterial cell surface properties and interior structures, including DNA. Very few studies exist on bacterial damage caused by centrifugation because of the difficulty in relating centrifugation speed and container geometry to the damage caused. Here, we provide a simple, versatile method of analysis for describing the compaction of bacteria during centrifugation based on a proposed centrifugation coefficient, C . Values of C can be related to different bacterial cell surface properties. Changing the geometry of the centrifugation container or centrifugation speeds changed the value of C significantly. Initial deposition rates of Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 12600 to a glass surface decayed exponentially from 4,217 to 1,478 cm ⁻² s ⁻¹ with increasing C , while the proportion of staphylococci with a zeta potential of around −15 mV decreased from 97 to 58%. These surface-sensitive parameters were used independently to derive a critical centrifugation coefficient (0.040), above which centrifugation was considered to impact the outcome of surface-sensitive experiments due to cell surface damage. The critical centrifugation coefficient could successfully predict staphylococcal cell surface damage, i.e., a significant change in initial deposition rate or zeta potential distribution, in 84% of all cases included here, whereas the centrifugation speed could predict damage in only 58% of all cases. Moreover, controlling the centrifugation coefficient within narrow limits over a series of experiments yielded 43% smaller standard deviations in initial staphylococcal deposition rates than with centrifugation at fixed speeds for replicate experiments.

Bacteria in the biofilm mode of growth are protected against chemical and mechanical stresses. Biofilms are composed, for the most part, of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs). The extracellular matrix is composed of different chemical constituents, such as proteins, polysaccharides, and extracellular DNA (eDNA). Here we aimed to identify the roles of different matrix constituents in the viscoelastic response of biofilms. Staphylococcus aureus , Staphylococcus epidermidis , Streptococcus mutans , and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms were grown under different conditions yielding distinct matrix chemistries. Next, biofilms were subjected to mechanical deformation and stress relaxation was monitored over time. A Maxwell model possessing an average of four elements for an individual biofilm was used to fit the data. Maxwell elements were defined by a relaxation time constant and their relative importance. Relaxation time constants varied widely over the 104 biofilms included and were divided into seven ranges (500 s). Principal-component analysis was carried out to eliminate related time constant ranges, yielding three principal components that could be related to the known matrix chemistries. The fastest relaxation component (<3 s) was due to the presence of water and soluble polysaccharides, combined with the absence of bacteria, i.e., the heaviest masses in a biofilm. An intermediate component (3 to 70 s) was related to other EPSs, while a distinguishable role was assigned to intact eDNA, which possesses a unique principal component with a time constant range (10 to 25 s) between those of EPS constituents. This implies that eDNA modulates its interaction with other matrix constituents to control its contribution to viscoelastic relaxation under mechanical stress. IMPORTANCE The protection offered by biofilms to organisms that inhabit it against chemical and mechanical stresses is due in part to its matrix of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) in which biofilm organisms embed themselves. Mechanical stresses lead to deformation and possible detachment of biofilm organisms, and hence, rearrangement processes occur in a biofilm to relieve it from these stresses. Maxwell analysis of stress relaxation allows the determination of characteristic relaxation time constants, but the biofilm components and matrix constituents associated with different stress relaxation processes have never been identified. Here we grew biofilms with different matrix constituents and used principal-component analysis to reveal that the presence of water and soluble polysaccharides, together with the absence of bacteria, is associated with the fastest relaxation, while other EPSs control a second, slower relaxation. Extracellular DNA, as a matrix constituent, had a distinguishable role with its own unique principal component in stress relaxation with a time constant range between those of other EPSs.

The poor penetrability of many biofilms contributes to the recalcitrance of infectious biofilms to antimicrobial treatment. Here, a new application for the use of magnetic nanoparticles in nanomedicine to create artificial channels in infectious biofilms to enhance antimicrobial penetration and bacterial killing is proposed. Staphylococcus aureus biofilms are exposed to magnetic‐iron‐oxide nanoparticles (MIONPs), while magnetically forcing MIONP movement through the biofilm. Confocal laser scanning microscopy demonstrates artificial channel digging perpendicular to the substratum surface. Artificial channel digging significantly (4–6‐fold) enhances biofilm penetration and bacterial killing efficacy by gentamicin in two S. aureus strains with and without the ability to produce extracellular polymeric substances. Herewith, this work provides a simple, new, and easy way to enhance the eradication of infectious biofilms using MIONPs combined with clinically applied antibiotic therapies.

Magnetic, antimicrobial-carrying nanoparticles provide a promising, new and direly needed antimicrobial strategy against infectious bacterial biofilms. Penetration and accumulation of antimicrobials over the thickness of a biofilm is a conditio sine qua non for effective killing of biofilm inhabitants. Simplified schematics on magnetic-targeting, always picture homogeneous distribution of magnetic, antimicrobial-carrying nanoparticles over the thickness of biofilms, but this is not easy to achieve. Here, gentamicin-carrying magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs-G) were synthesized through gentamicin-conjugation with iron-oxide nanoparticles and used to demonstrate the importance of their homogeneous distribution over the thickness of a biofilm. Diameters of MNPs-G were around 60 nm, well below the limit for reticulo-endothelial rejection. MNPs-G killed most ESKAPE-panel pathogens, including Escherichia coli, equally as well as gentamicin in solution. MNPs-G distribution in a Staphylococcus aureus biofilm was dependent on magnetic-field exposure time and most homogeneous after 5 min magnetic-field exposure. Exposure of biofilms to MNPs-G with 5 min magnetic-field exposure, not only yielded homogeneous distribution of MNPs-G, but concurrently better staphylococcal killing at all depths than MNPs, gentamicin in solution, and MNPs-G, or after other magnet-field exposure times. In summary, homogeneous distribution of gentamicin-carrying magnetic nanoparticles over the thickness of a staphylococcal biofilm was essential for killing biofilm inhabitants and required optimizing of the magnetic-field exposure time. This conclusion is important for further successful development of magnetic, antimicrobial-carrying nanoparticles towards clinical application.