1. Wprowadzenie. 2. Metody badań wielogatunkowych biofilmów. 3. Wielogatunkowy biofilm płytki nazębnej. 4. Wielogatunkowe biofilmy w wodzie. 5. Wielogatunkowe biofilmy w środowisku przemysłowym. 6. Wielogatunkowe biofilmy a rozwój zakażeń.

Abstract: Multi-species biofilms form in many natural settings: water, soil or even on dust particles in the air. These biofilms can be also found in the industrial water distribution systems, on surfaces of the metalworking fluids tanks, in food production plants, etc. Many chronic infections involve multi-species biofilms; moreover, commensal vaginal flora or dental plaque bacteria may create such complex microbial consortia. In order to study the composition of microbial community several molecular methods have to be employed; among them metagenomics and proteomics are the most promising. Confocal microscopy in conjunction with fluorescence in situ hybridization as well as the atomic force microscopy are both very useful techniques to study the three-dimensional structure of the mixed-species biofilms. However, many technical obstacles may occur with these consortia during experimentation, e.g., how to grow multi-species biofilms with high reproducibility regarding the quantitative composition of these communities, and whether it is possible to quantitative by assess the metabolic activity and virulence of particular species when grown together in multi-species biofilm. The knowledge of specific traits of multi-species biofilms may contribute to better understanding of the etiology of infectious diseases, increase the effciency of energy production in microbial fuel cells and lower the cost of biofouling prevention.

1. Introduction. 2. Research methods in the multi-species biofilm studies. 3. Dental plaque multi-species biofilm. 4. Multi-species biofilms in water. 5. Multi-species biofilms in industrial environment. 6. Multi-species biofilms and the development of infections.