Microorganisms navigate and divide on surfaces to form multicellular structures called biofilms, the most widespread survival strategy found in the bacterial world. One common assumption is that cellular components guide the spatial architecture and arrangement of multiple species in a biofilm. However, bacteria must contend with mechanical forces generated through contact with surfaces and under fluid flow, whose contributions to colonization patterns are poorly understood. Here, we show how the balance between motility and flow promotes the emergence of morphological patterns in
This content will become publicly available on February 1, 2025
Cells must access resources to survive, and the anatomy of multicellular structures influences this access. In diverse multicellular eukaryotes, resources are provided by internal conduits that allow substances to travel more readily through tissue than they would via diffusion. Microbes growing in multicellular structures, called biofilms, are also affected by differential access to resources and we hypothesized that this is influenced by the physical arrangement of the cells. In this study, we examined the microanatomy of biofilms formed by the pathogenic bacterium
- Award ID(s):
- 2216676
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10498868
- Editor(s):
- Sourjik, Victor
- Publisher / Repository:
- PLOS
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- PLOS Biology
- Volume:
- 22
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 1545-7885
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- e3002205
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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