Work

Intrinsically robust and scalable biofilm segmentation under diverse physical growth conditions

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Developmental patterning is a shared feature across biological systems ranging from vertebrates to bacterial biofilms. While vertebrate patterning benefits from well-controlled homeostatic environments, bacterial biofilms can grow in diverse physical contexts. What mechanisms provide developmental robustness under diverse environments remains an open question. We show that a native clock-and-wavefront mechanism robustly segments biofilms in both solid-air and solid-liquid interfaces. Biofilms grown under these distinct physical conditions differ 4-fold in size yet exhibit robust segmentation. The segmentation pattern scaled with biofilm growth rate in a mathematically predictable manner independent of habitat conditions. We show that scaling arises from the coupling between wavefront speed and biofilm growth rate. In contrast to the complexity of scaling mechanisms in vertebrates, our data suggests that the minimal bacterial clock-and-wavefront mechanism is intrinsically robust and scales in real time. Consequently, bacterial biofilms robustly segment under diverse conditions without requiring cell-to-cell signaling to track system size.

Source: iScience

DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111386

Authors: Jian-geng Chiou, Todd Kwang-Tao Chou, Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo, Gürol M. Süel

Institutions: University of California San Diego, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Language: English

Topic: Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensing

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,150