Regulation of flagellar motility during biofilm formation

Many bacteria swim in liquid or swarm over solid surfaces by synthesizing rotary flagella. The same bacteria that are motile also commonly form non-motile multicellular aggregates held together by an extracellular matrix called biofilms. Biofilms are an important part of the lifestyle of pathogenic bacteria and it is assumed that there is a motility-to-biofilm transition wherein the inhibition of motility promotes biofilm formation. The transition is largely inferred from regulatory mutants that reveal the opposite regulation of the two phenotypes. Here we review the regulation of motility during biofilm formation in Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Vibrio, and Escherichia, and we conclude that the motility-to-biofilm…