{"id":519967,"date":"2026-06-26T19:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T19:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/519967\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T19:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T19:00:12","slug":"a-copper-economy-helps-fungi-and-bacteria-build-better-biofilms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/519967\/","title":{"rendered":"A \u201ccopper economy\u201d helps fungi and bacteria build better biofilms"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\"Candida<\/p>\n

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image:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus mixed biofilm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

view more\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Credit: Christian Hacker, Orlando Ross and Se\u00e1na Duggan, University of Exeter<\/p>\n

Scientists have discovered that two common human pathogens can work together by managing copper in their shared environment – a finding that could open new ways to break down stubborn mixed biofilms.<\/p>\n

The fungus\u00a0Candida albicans\u00a0and the bacterium\u00a0Staphylococcus aureus\u00a0are both major causes of human infection. They are also found together in complex infections, including wounds, bloodstream infections and infections linked to medical devices.<\/p>\n

When microbes form biofilms, they grow as surface-attached communities that can be difficult to treat. Mixed fungal-bacterial biofilms are especially challenging because different organisms can protect or support one another, making infections harder to clear.<\/p>\n

Now, researchers led by Dr Se\u00e1na Duggan<\/a>, from the University of Exeter\u2019s MRC Centre for Medical Mycology<\/a>, have discovered that copper plays a central role in this fungal-bacterial partnership. The study, supported by the NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre<\/a>, \u00a0reveals what the team describes as a microbial \u201ccopper economy\u201d, in which the fungus and bacterium handle copper in different but complementary ways.<\/p>\n

Dr Duggan said: \u201cWe usually think about copper as something that can kill microbes, because high levels are toxic. Our study reveals something more nuanced. In these mixed biofilms, copper appears to act almost like a shared currency that helps two very different pathogens cooperate. When that copper balance is disturbed, the partnership collapses. That gives us a potential new way to think about targeting infections that are difficult to treat because they involve more than one type of microbe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team grew\u00a0C. albicans\u00a0and\u00a0S. aureus\u00a0together under laboratory conditions designed to mimic the human body. They found that the two species formed larger and more active biofilms than either microbe alone. Protein analyses showed that\u00a0C. albicans\u00a0increased proteins involved in copper uptake, while\u00a0S. aureus\u00a0increased proteins linked to copper export and copper stress protection.<\/p>\n

Changing copper availability disrupted this cooperation. Both excess copper and copper limitation weakened the mixed biofilm, showing that the community depends on a finely balanced copper environment.<\/p>\n

Dr Duggan said: \u201cThe most striking thing was that the mixed biofilm was much more sensitive to copper disruption than either organism alone. That tells us we are not just looking at the biology of one pathogen or the other. We are looking at the biology of the relationship between them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study also showed that copper shaped the physical structure of the biofilm, and early tests suggest that copper-based approaches could help break these microbial communities down.<\/p>\n

Dr Duggan said: \u201cMixed infections are a major clinical challenge, yet we still know relatively little about the molecular mechanisms inside these communities. Our work shows that micronutrients such as copper might dictate whether pathogens compete, cooperate, or become harder to treat. If we can identify the conditions that make these microbial partnerships fail, we may be able to design better ways to break them apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study highlights the importance of looking beyond single-pathogen infections and considering the cooperative behaviours that can emerge when fungi and bacteria grow together.<\/p>\n

The paper is titled \u201cCopper Driven Mutualism of\u00a0Candida albicans\u00a0and\u00a0Staphylococcus aureus\u00a0Interkingdom Biofilms<\/a>\u201d and is published in\u00a0Microbiology.<\/p>\n

Method of Research<\/p>\n

Experimental study<\/p>\n

Subject of Research<\/p>\n

Cells<\/p>\n

Article Title<\/p>\n

Copper Driven Mutualism of Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus Interkingdom Biofilms<\/p>\n

Article Publication Date<\/p>\n

26-Jun-2026<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"image:\u00a0 Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus mixed biofilm.\u00a0 view more\u00a0 Credit: Christian Hacker, Orlando Ross and Se\u00e1na Duggan,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":["post-519967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}