In response to Jan Kreft's question:
A while back I was doing some work with Dirk deBeer in
which we sucked biofilm clusters out of a biofilm
using a micropipette and enumerated the viable cells
by plate count. The clusters were approx 200 microns
diameter. We estimated the volume of the clusters by
assuming they were hemispheres. We got about 1x10^10
cells / ml of cluster material. The cells were gram
-ve rods 2 microns long by 1 micron wide to give a
vol of 1.31 microns cubed. This works out that the vol
occupied by cells in a cluster is 1.31 %. Some of this
is written up in Stoodley, P., de Beer, D., and
Lewandowski, Z. 1994. "Liquid flow in biofilm
systems." Applied and Environ. Microbiology.
60:2711-2716. Also included in this paper is how the
surface covered by a biofilm varies with depth.
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----------------------
Paul Stoodley
Environmental Tel: 01392 264348
Microbiology Fax: 01392 263700
Research email: p.stoodley at exeter.ac.uk
Group
Exeter University
Biological Sciences
Hatherly Laboratories
Prince of Wales Road
Exeter EX4 4PS. UK.
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