Figure 9.

Schematization of the scenario for the formation of a streamer in a microchannel based on hydrodynamic conditions. The flow direction is from top to bottom. The z velocity for xy and xz planes in a microchannel is represented with the color map. Bacteria are depicted as black ellipses, the streams lines as dotted lines and the filaments of EPS by solid lines. Steps 1, 2, and 3 represent, bacteria adhesion, formation of filaments (fishing line) and formation of streamers (fishing net), respectively.