- It makes sense that two organisms in the same niche should compete for space and resources. Far more interesting is the fact that sometimes fungi and bacteria will work together in order to colonise the human body. The bacteria Staphylococcus aureus doesn’t usually form biofilms when grown on clean surfaces, but in the presence of C. albicans it forms large multi-bacterial colonies using the strands of yeast as a scaffold.
- The image below shows the yeast strands (in blue) co-colonising with the bacteria (in green). By forming biofilms together the fungi and bacteria are both better protected from the human immune system as well as from antibiotics
Ca (Candida Albicans) and Sa (Staphylococcus Aureus)
Reference:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com
