Extracellular polymeric bacterial coverages as minimal area surfaces.

Surfaces formed by extracellular polymeric substances enclosing individual and some small communities of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans on plates of hydrophobic silicon and hydrophilic mica are analyzed by means of atomic force microscopy imaging. Accurate nanoscale descriptions of such coverage surfaces are obtained. The good agreement with the predictions of a rather simple but realistic theoretical model allows us to conclude that they correspond, indeed, to minimal area (constant mean curvature) surfaces enclosing a given volume associated with the encased bacteria. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first shape characterization of the coverage formed by these biomolecules, with potential applications to the study of biofilms.