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Open research questions in Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensing

165 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 826 Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensing papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • The gap in current antibiotic therapies is their inability to effectively combat biofilms. The lack of understanding of the anti-biofilm action of natural compounds like clove oil. The need for novel strategies to enhance the efficacy of existing antibiotics against biofilm-forming bacteria.

    Clove Oil Enhances Fosfomycin Efficacy Against Escherichia coli O157:H7 via Biofilm Disruption · 2026 · DOI

  • Deeper mechanistic insight into community interactions, environmental feedback loops, and gravity-dependent biology is needed - Development of new modelling frameworks and tools that operate at the community scale

    Building biofilm: engineering for life off Earth · 2026 · DOI

  • The need to integrate different layers of biofilm engineering to achieve whole biofilm engineering. The lack of deeper mechanistic insight into community interactions, environmental feedback loops, and gravity-dependent biology.

    Building biofilm: engineering for life off Earth · 2026 · DOI

  • One challenge is the difficulty in eradicating mixed-species biofilms due to their increased tolerance to environmental stresses and sanitation. Another challenge is the need to understand the behavior of mixed-species biofilms under real-world industrial conditions. The paper also highlights the challenge of developing innovative strategies for monitoring, controlling, and preventing biofilm-associated risks.

    Mixed-species biofilms in food systems: from community assembly to ecology-informed management · 2026 · DOI

  • Significant knowledge gaps remain regarding the behavior of mixed-species biofilms under real-world industrial conditions. The limitations of traditional eradication-based approaches are not well understood. There is a need for innovative strategies for monitoring, controlling, and preventing biofilm-associated risks.

    Mixed-species biofilms in food systems: from community assembly to ecology-informed management · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need for alternative approaches to treat biofilm-associated infections. The current literature on the bioavailability, distribution, and effective concentrations of phytochemicals in treating biofilm-associated infections is limited.

    Potential Use of Selected Natural Compounds with Anti-Biofilm Activity · 2025 · DOI

  • IMPORTANCE The spread of antibiotic resistance between spatially discrete microbial colonies is poorly understood, despite its relevance to persistent colonization on a variety of surfaces (e.

    Spatial constraints determine the spread of plasmid-encoded antibiotic resistance between bacterial colonies · 2026 · DOI

  • However, in environments such as soil, where microbial populations are spatially fragmented, sparse, nutrient-limited, and subject to mass transport, the mechanisms that enable QS-dependent processes remain incompletely understood.

    Phosphorus stress and spatial confinement lower the quorum-sensing activation threshold for phenazine production in Pseudomonas synxantha · 2026 · DOI

  • While many of these systems use a single adaptor protein, others encode multiple adaptors whose roles in array organization and signaling are not well understood.

    Distinct roles of PilI and ChpC in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Chp chemosensory array architecture · 2026 · DOI

  • Examining biofilms from understudied niches has the potential to identify extracellular matrices with novel properties.

    Diversification of biofilm architecture among freshwater Pararheinheimera isolates · 2026 · DOI

  • Our results demonstrate that ALI colonization strategies vary widely even among closely related aquatic bacteria and identify VM pellicles as a promising platform for biomaterials development.

    Diversification of biofilm architecture among freshwater Pararheinheimera isolates · 2026 · DOI

  • In bacteria, although the significance of Ca 2+ regulation is recognized, it is commonly attributed to its role as a first messenger, while the mechanistic basis for its capacity as a second messenger remains elusive.

    Host-derived stimuli alter intracellular calcium levels in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, revealing its potential role as a second messenger · 2026 · DOI

  • Although the role of calcium ions (Ca² + ) as a signaling molecule, regulating multiple essential processes, has been well established in eukaryotes, Ca² + signaling in bacteria remains understudied.

    Host-derived stimuli alter intracellular calcium levels in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, revealing its potential role as a second messenger · 2026 · DOI

  • These findings identify QSI-1 and QSI-2 as covalently designed LasB-active antivirulence leads, while direct experimental confirmation of Glu141 covalent modification remains to be established.

    Structure-Guided Covalent Design and Biological Evaluation of Glycidamido-Leucinamide Antivirulence Agents Against Pseudomonas aeruginosa · 2026 · DOI

  • This insight underscores the need for further research into their clinical applications for treating infections complicated by biofilms.

    Potential Use of Selected Natural Compounds with Anti-Biofilm Activity · 2025 · DOI

  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa is commonly associated with chronic and recalcitrant canine OE, but studies with detailed genomic and phenotypic characterisation of clinical isolates are lacking.

    Genomic and phenotypic characterisation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from canine otitis externa reveals high-risk sequence types identical to those found in human nosocomial infections · 2025 · DOI

  • Together, the findings reviewed here support the continued investigation of lectins as potential agents against biofilm-associated infections as well as highlight the need to address existing gaps, such as the lack of in vivo studies and limited research on the structure-function relationships of lectins and their antibiofilm activity.

    Lectins as Natural Antibiofilm Agents in the Fight Against Antibiotic Resistance: A Review · 2025 · DOI

  • Interestingly, the impact of these molecules on innate immune signaling has not been explored.

    Silence the alarm: (p)ppGpp reduces the expression of key innate immune system regulatory genes 3177 · 2025 · DOI

  • While these compounds have promising utility as antimicrobial agents, their mechanism of action remains unknown.

    Mechanisms of antibiofilm compounds JG-1 and M4 across multiple species: alterations of protein interactions essential to biofilm formation · 2025 · DOI

  • Burkholderia cepacia is an underexplored opportunistic pathogen and a food spoilage species.

    Enhancing the destruction of Burkholderia cepacia biofilm on stainless steel coupons by combining matrix-degrading enzymes with antimicrobials · 2025 · DOI

  • It is predicted that antimicrobial concentrations higher than MIC-Bio in the treatment combinations would eliminate residual biofilm on the coupons, but this needs to be studied.

    Enhancing the destruction of Burkholderia cepacia biofilm on stainless steel coupons by combining matrix-degrading enzymes with antimicrobials · 2025 · DOI

  • While modulator therapies are improving bronchial epithelial cellular processes in wound repair and some areas of immunity, many of these processes do not reach a non-CF baseline state or have not been thoroughly studied.

    Wound repair and immune function in the Pseudomonas infected CF lung: before and after highly effective modulator therapy · 2025 · DOI

  • Future studies should consider biofilms formed under dynamic conditions simulating meat plant operations, using species/strains that are more representative of the Pseudomonas populations found in meat processing environments, and with growth media that closely resemble the nutrients found on meat processing surfaces.

    Pseudomonas in Meat Processing Environments · 2025 · DOI

  • However, given the disparate cellular behaviors regulated by these second messengers, how newly attached cells coordinate these pathways remains unclear.

    The surface interface and swimming motility influence surface-sensing responses in Pseudomonas aeruginosa · 2024 · DOI

  • This review provides reference and inspiration for further research on the anti-virulence application of nanomaterials.

    Nanomaterials Regulate Bacterial Quorum Sensing: Applications, Mechanisms, and Optimization Strategies · 2024 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensing

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165 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 826 Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensing papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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