Introduction

Abstract

Microbial adhesion and aggregation can mean many things to many people. Why is this so? These processes of adhesion and aggregation are manifest in many forms and are studied by researchers from a wide variety of disciplines. Adhesion and/or aggregation of microorganisms are involved in certain diseases of humans and animals, in dental plaque formation, in industrial processes, in fouling of man-made surfaces, in syntrophic and other community interactions between microorganisms, and in the activity and survival of microorganisms in natural habitats. Different approaches to the study of these phenomena have developed depending on whether the work has been carried out by microbiologists, biotechnologists, physical chemists, or engineers.