biofilms, driven by extracellular polysaccharides (EPSs), exacerbate pathogenicity and drug resistance, posing critical threats to public health. While EPS biosynthesis pathways are central to biofilm formation, their distinct contributions and regulatory dynamics remain incompletely understood. Here, we systematically dissect the roles of three core EPS pathways-Psl, Pel, and alginate-in biofilm architecture and function using multi-omics approaches. Key findings reveal Psl as the dominant regulator of biofilm elasticity and thickness, with its deletion disrupting chemotaxis, quorum sensing, and 3',5'-Cyclic GMP (c-di-GMP)/amino acid metabolism. Pel redundantly enhances biofilm biomass, but elevates flagellar synthesis efficiency when Psl is absent. Alginate exhibited negligible transcriptional or metabolic influence on biofilms. These insights clarify hierarchical EPS contributions and highlight Psl as a priority target for therapeutic strategies to dismantle biofilm-mediated resistance.
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Liu et al. (2025) studied this question.