Promising biotechnological applications of antibiofilm exopolysaccharides

Polysaccharides are polymers of carbohydrates with an enormous structural diversity, from long linear repetition of the same monomer to highly branched structures of dif-ferent sugars. This high structural diversity reflects the functional diversity of these molecules. There are two types of polysaccharides, storage polysaccharides (i.e. glycogen) and structural polysaccharides, which are nor-mally secreted by the cell and form different cell structures (i.e. cellulose, chitin). Extracellular polysaccharides or exopolysaccharides belong to this last group. Exopolysaccharides are produced not only by microor-ganisms, but also by algae, plants and animals (Suther-land, 2005). Bacterial exopolysaccharides are a major component of the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) or matrix of biofilms, and mediate most of the