self-organization in high-density bacterial colonies efficient crowd control自组织在高密度细菌菌落有效控制人群.pdfVIP

PLoS BIOLOGY Self-Organization in High-Density Bacterial Colonies: Efficient Crowd Control 1[ ¨ 2[ 3 2 4 5 HoJung Cho , Henrik Jonsson , Kyle Campbell , Pontus Melke , Joshua W. Williams , Bruno Jedynak , 4 3* 1* Ann M. Stevens , Alex Groisman , Andre Levchenko 1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America, 2 Department of Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, 3 Department of Physics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America, 4 Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America, 5 Center for Imaging Science, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America Colonies of bacterial cells can display complex collective dynamics, frequently culminating in the formation of biofilms and other ordered super-structures. Recent studies suggest that to cope with local environmental challenges, bacterial cells can actively seek out small chambers or cavities and assemble there, engaging in quorum sensing behavior. By using a novel microfluidic device, we showed that within chambers of distinct shapes and sizes allowing continuous cell escape, bacterial colonies can gradually self-organize. The directions of orientation of cells, their growth, and collective motion are mutually correlated and dictated by the chamber walls and locations of chamber exits. The ultimate highly organized steady state is conducive to a more-organized escape of cells from the chambers and increased access of nutrients into and evacuation of waste out of the