The ubiquity and many roles of exopolymers (EPS) in aquatic systems
By R. Wotton. 2004
138 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Exopolymers (EPS) are produced by unicellular and multicellular organisms. They consist largely of polysaccharides that hydrate rapidly on contact with water and link to form gels. EPS have many uses: in attachment; in locomotion on substrata; as a protection against predators, pathogens and changes in physico-chemical conditions; as a means of overcoming the threat of desiccation; in preventing abrasion; and in feeding. When free of organisms, some EPS form loosely associated polymer gels that are important in the development of organic matter aggregates. These aggregates, together with mucus-bound faecal pellets, play an essential role in nutrient cycling, and in the metabolism of ecosystems.;
Subfields: Biomaterials, Ocean Engineering, Oceanography
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/14f94cd87e6dfa655cb75b7bcf97c0f37c460577
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In Biomaterials
In Ocean Engineering
In Oceanography
Citations in the corpus
- Overview of biopolymer-induced mineralization: What goes on in biofilms? (2010, background): “A great deal of literature exists on the various monomeric comositions of EPS polysaccharides of bacteria under different growth onditions, and will not be explored in-depth here (for reviews, see echo, 1990; Sutherland, 2001b; Wotton, 2004).”