Work

The role of substrate mechanics in osmotic biofilm spreading

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: the role of substrate softness in the osmotic spreading of biofilms. We show that on soft substrates with an imposed osmotic pressure spreading is considerably slowed down and may be completely halted depending on the biomass production rate. We find that the critical slowing down of biofilm spreading on soft surfaces is caused by a reduced osmotic influx of solvent into the biofilm at the edges, which results from the thermodynamic coupling between substrate deformation and interfacial forces. By linking substrate osmotic pressure and mechanical softness through scaling laws, our simple model semi-quantitatively captures a range of experimentally observed biofilm spreading dynamics on hydrogels with different architectures, underscoring the importance of inherent substrate properties in the spreading process.

Source: Soft Matter

DOI: 10.1039/d4sm01463d

Authors: Anthony Pietz, Karin John, Uwe Thiele

Institutions: University of Münster, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique, Université Grenoble Alpes

Language: English

Topic: Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensing

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, Deutsch-Französische Hochschule

Award: G3210210275