Author Archives: Carolina Suarez

Biofilm thickness matters

Does biofilm thickness matters? Biofilms are agglomerations of microbial cells attached to each other or to surfaces (like the slime on river rocks or the slimy, sticky goo in bathrooms). Their thickness can vary, and that thickness can be influenced by many factors. For example, older biofilms would be thicker than newer ones. Nutrient availabilityContinue reading “Biofilm thickness matters”

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)

Microorganisms are very small! In the microscopy picture above each tiny circle is a microbial cell, with a size of around one micrometre (0.001 milometers). It is a picture of a microbial biofilm with many species living together, where each colour represents a different population. The big cyan agglomerate in the lower left corner isContinue reading “Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)”

rRNA/rDNA and looking for active taxa in microbial communities

During my scientific research, many of experiments did not work, some of my hypotheses were wrong, and sometimes I got negative results. One of these studies where I had high expectations, but I did not get interesting results was years ago during my PhD. There I attempted to identify the metabolically active taxa in aContinue reading “rRNA/rDNA and looking for active taxa in microbial communities”