The close coexistence of organisms of different biological species is one of the leading principles of the existence of living matter. Symbiotic relationships may take many forms. They can be mutually beneficial, mutually neutral, useful for one of the symbiotes and neutral or harmful for the other ones. The variety of roles these interactions play spurs the unabated interest in their research. Whether changes in the nature of one-sided or mutual influence of the components of the symbiotic complex are possible remains an open question. Existing data allow us to substantiate the assumption about the possible malignant effect of microbial biofilms on adjacent tissues during the development of microbial resistance to adverse environmental factors.

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest