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Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Monitoring Spatial Segregation in Surface Colonizing Microbial Populations
Published on: October 29, 2016
Bacteria can form interconnected microcolonies when a self-excreted product reduces their surface motility: evidence
Nabil Mabrouk1, Guillaume Deffuant, Tim Tolker-Nielsen
1INRIA, MERE Project, 2 pl. Viala, Montpellier, France. nabil.mabrouk@cemagref.fr
Abstract:
Recent experimental observations of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a model bacterium in biofilm research, reveal that, under specific growth conditions, bacterial cells form patterns of interconnected microcolonies. In the present work, we use an individual-based model to assess the involvement of bacteria motility and self-produced extracellular substance in the formation of these patterns. In our simulations, the pattern of interconnected microcolonies appears only when bacteria motility is reduced by excreted extracellular macromolecules. Immotile bacteria form isolated microcolonies and constantly motile bacteria form flat biofilms. Based on experimental data and computer simulations, we suggest a mechanism that could be responsible for these interconnected microcolonies.
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