Summary Quantitative descriptions of biofilm growth and dynamics at the individual cell level are largely missing from the literature. To fill this gap, research was done to describe growth, accumulation and displacement patterns in developing Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. A parent strain of PAO1 was labelled with either a cyan or yellow fluorescent protein. These were then grown in a flow cell biofilm together so that pock...

Summary Bacterial biofilms demonstrate adaptive resistance in response to antimicrobial stress more effectively than corresponding planktonic populations. We propose here that, in biofilms, reaction‐diffusion limited penetration may result in only low levels of antimicrobial exposure to deeper regions of the biofilm. Sheltered cells are then able to enter an adapted resistant state if the local time scale for adaptation is fas...