Influence of topology on bacterial social interaction.
The environmental topology of complex structures is used by Escherichia coli to create traveling waves of high cell density, a prelude to quorum sensing. When cells are grown to a moderate density within a confining microenvironment, these traveling waves of cell density allow the cells to find and collapse into confining topologies, which are unstable to population fluctuations above a critical threshold. This was first observed in mazes designed to mimic complex environments, then more clearly in a simpler geometry consisting of a large open area surrounding a square (250 x 250 microm) with a narrow opening of 10-30 microm. Our results thus show that under nutrient-deprived conditions bacteria search out each other in a collective manner and that the bacteria can dynamically confine themselves to highly enclosed spaces.
Park
Sungsu
S
Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Wolanin
Peter M
PM
Yuzbashyan
Emil A
EA
Lin
Hai
H
Darnton
Nicholas C
NC
Stock
Jeffry B
JB
Silberzan
Pascal
P
Austin
Robert
R
D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000502:physiology*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008954:Models, Biological; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000235:genetics
D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins