title: How Escherichia coli lands and forms cell clusters on a surface: a new role of surface topography.
abstract: Bacterial response to surface topography during biofilm formation was studied using 5 μm tall line patterns of poly (dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). Escherichia coli cells attached on top of protruding line patterns were found to align more perpendicularly to the orientation of line patterns when the pattern narrowed. Consistently, cell cluster formation per unit area on 5 μm wide line patterns was reduced by 14-fold compared to flat PDMS. Contrasting the reduced colony formation, cells attached on narrow patterns were longer and had higher transcriptional activities, suggesting that such unfavorable topography may present a stress to attached cells. Results of mutant studies indicate that flagellar motility is involved in the observed preference in cell orientation on narrow patterns, which was corroborated by the changes in cell rotation pattern before settling on different surface topographies. These findings led to a set of new design principles for creating antifouling topographies, which was validated using 10 μm tall hexagonal patterns.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.|Syracuse Biomaterials Institute, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.|Syracuse Biomaterials Institute, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.|Syracuse Biomaterials Institute, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
authors.forename: Xinran
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.|Syracuse Biomaterials Institute, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
authors.forename: Megan E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Brasch
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.|Syracuse Biomaterials Institute, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
authors.forename: James H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Henderson
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.|Syracuse Biomaterials Institute, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.|Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.|Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, United States.
authors.forename: Dacheng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ren
mesh_terms: D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D018441:Biofilms; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D005407:Flagella / Q000502:physiology; D013499:Surface Properties