title: A network model for biofilm development in Escherichia coli K-12.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In nature, bacteria often exist as biofilms. Biofilms are communities of microorganisms attached to a surface. It is clear that biofilm-grown cells harbor properties remarkably distinct from planktonic cells. Biofilms frequently complicate treatments of infections by protecting bacteria from the immune system, decreasing antibiotic efficacy and dispersing planktonic cells to distant body sites. In this work, we employed enhanced Boolean algebra to model biofilm formation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The network obtained describes biofilm formation successfully, assuming - in accordance with the literature - that when the negative regulators (RscCD and EnvZ/OmpR) are off, the positive regulator (FlhDC) is on. The network was modeled under three different conditions through time with satisfactory outcomes. Each cluster was constructed using the K-means/medians Clustering Support algorithm on the basis of published Affymetrix microarray gene expression data from biofilm-forming bacteria and the planktonic state over four time points for Escherichia coli K-12.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The different phenotypes obtained demonstrate that the network model of biofilm formation can simulate the formation or repression of biofilm efficiently in E. coli K-12.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors.forename: Andrew A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Shalá
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Restrepo
authors.forename: Andrés F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: González Barrios
mesh_terms: D018441:Biofilms / Q000254:growth & development*; D048168:Escherichia coli K12 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D055786:Gene Knockout Techniques; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks / Q000235:genetics*; D008954:Models, Biological; D005810:Multigene Family