Table 1.

Roles of mechanics in microbiological community

What are the microbiological needs?	Which place for mechanics?	Which mechanical parameter?	Applications
Knowledge about the biofilm life-cycle	Indicator of behavior change	Change in material properties before failure (elastic moduli, strain) Qualitative understanding (viscoelastic behavior)	Understanding the physical stability of biofilms Helping the development of therapeutics strategies (antibiotic screening) Understanding the streamer formation
Mechanical control strategies	Threshold value	Loss of cohesive or adhesive strength	Improvement of operational parameters in irrigation systems Improvement of biofouling management in hydrated environments and cleaning procedures (detaching biofilm clusters or disrupting extracellular matrix)