TY - JOUR
T1 - The second skin
T2 - Ecological role of epibiotic biofilms on marine organisms
AU - Wahl, Martin
AU - Goecke, Franz
AU - Labes, Antje
AU - Dobretsov, Sergey
AU - Weinberger, Florian
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - In the aquatic environment, biofilms on solid surfaces are omnipresent. The outer body surface of marine organisms often represents a highly active interface between host and biofilm. Since biofilms on living surfaces have the capacity to affect the fluxes of information, energy, and matter across the host's body surface, they have an important ecological potential to modulate the abiotic and biotic interactions of the host. Here we review existing evidence how marine epibiotic biofilms affect their hosts' ecology by altering the properties of and processes across its outer surfaces. Biofilms have a huge potential to reduce its host's access to light, gases, and/or nutrients and modulate the host's interaction with further foulers, consumers, or pathogens.These effects of epibiotic biofilms may intensely interact with environmental conditions. The quality of a biofilm's impact on the host may vary from detrimental to beneficial according to the identity of the epibiotic partners, the type of interaction considered, and prevailing environmental conditions. The review concludes with some unresolved but important questions and future perspectives.
AB - In the aquatic environment, biofilms on solid surfaces are omnipresent. The outer body surface of marine organisms often represents a highly active interface between host and biofilm. Since biofilms on living surfaces have the capacity to affect the fluxes of information, energy, and matter across the host's body surface, they have an important ecological potential to modulate the abiotic and biotic interactions of the host. Here we review existing evidence how marine epibiotic biofilms affect their hosts' ecology by altering the properties of and processes across its outer surfaces. Biofilms have a huge potential to reduce its host's access to light, gases, and/or nutrients and modulate the host's interaction with further foulers, consumers, or pathogens.These effects of epibiotic biofilms may intensely interact with environmental conditions. The quality of a biofilm's impact on the host may vary from detrimental to beneficial according to the identity of the epibiotic partners, the type of interaction considered, and prevailing environmental conditions. The review concludes with some unresolved but important questions and future perspectives.
KW - Biofilm
KW - Chemical ecology
KW - Epibiosis
KW - Microbe-macroorganism interaction
KW - Modulation of interactions
KW - Stress
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84873192413&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84873192413&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fmicb.2012.00292
DO - 10.3389/fmicb.2012.00292
M3 - Review article
C2 - 22936927
AN - SCOPUS:84873192413
SN - 1664-302X
VL - 3
JO - Frontiers in Microbiology
JF - Frontiers in Microbiology
IS - AUG
ER -