, 2010a; Rajendran et al., 2011). Clinically, moulds have become increasingly recognized in the CF lung, however, their definitive role is yet to be established and fully understood (Pihet et al., 2009). Further clinical relevance for the role of the A. fumigatus biofilm phenotype and the role of filamentation are provided from our knowledge of the CF lung microbiome (Burns et al., 1998; Cimon et al., 2001; Bakare et al., 2003). Aspergillus fumigatus is commonly isolated from here; DNA Damage inhibitor however, the levels of disease are relatively low suggesting some interactive behaviour. Our recent in vitro study, aimed to investigate how A. fumigatus interacts

with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the primary CF biofilm pathogen (Mowat et al., learn more 2010). Aspergillus fumigatus biofilm formation was shown to be inhibited by direct contact with P. aeruginosa, but preformed biofilms were unaffected.

A secreted heat-stable soluble factor was also shown to exhibit biofilm inhibition. Subsequently, co-culture of P. aeruginosa quorum sensing (QS) mutants (ΔlasI and ΔlasR) did not significantly inhibit A. fumigatus biofilms and filamentation to the same extent as that of the PA01 wild type, both by direct and by indirect interaction. It was hypothesized that these were related to QS molecules and demonstrated that sessile cells could be inhibited and disrupted in a concentration-dependent manner by short carbon chain molecules (decanol, decanoic acid and dodecanol) analogous to QS molecules. Overall, this suggests that small diffusible and heat-stable molecules may be responsible for the competitive inhibition of filamentous fungal growth in polymicrobial environments such as the CF lung, and this could be harnessed as a potential therapeutic strategy. This is particularly important, given the

high levels of biofilm resistance to common chemotherapeutic agents (Mowat et al., 2008b; Seidler et al., 2008; Nett et al., 2010a; Fiori et al., 2011), which is often associated with biofilm specific phenotypes such as EPS production. In this article, we have briefly discussed morphological, physiological and molecular aspects of both clinically and industrially important Aspergillus biofilms, and have shown where and why they are important. Clinically, it is clear that much can be learned from the industrial platforms described herein. Anidulafungin (LY303366) Aspergillus fumigatus biofilms are a problematic clinical entity, and given their recalcitrance to antifungal agents, understanding the molecular pathways that define this clinical resistance is an important step towards identifying new therapeutic targets. M.G.-C was supported by Grant No. 072-FINCyT-PIN2008 from the National Program of Science and Technology of Peru. “
“Like other bacteria, Mycobacterium spp. have developed different strategies in response to environmental changes such as nutrient limitations and other different stress situations.