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Updated: Jan 28, 2026
09:56
Automated 3D Optical Coherence Tomography to Elucidate Biofilm Morphogenesis Over Large Spatial Scales
Published on: August 21, 2019
7.3K
Mechanical instability and interfacial energy drive biofilm morphogenesis
Jing Yan1,2, Chenyi Fei2, Sheng Mao1
1Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.
Elife
|March 9, 2019
Summary
Bacterial biofilms use mechanical instabilities like wrinkling and delamination to grow and change shape. Interfacial energy drives these changes, influencing biofilm structure and expansion.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology and Biophysics
- Investigating the physical principles governing biological structures.
Background:
- Biofilms, surface-attached bacterial communities, exhibit diverse morphologies.
- The mechanisms by which structural components drive biofilm surface morphology remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To elucidate the physical principles underlying bacterial biofilm morphogenesis.
- To identify the key factors controlling biofilm surface structure and development.
Main Methods:
- Utilized *Vibrio cholerae* as a model organism.
- Combined mechanical measurements, theoretical modeling, simulations, and quantitative image analysis.
- Performed surface energy characterizations and mutagenesis studies.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated that mechanical instabilities (wrinkling, delamination) are fundamental to biofilm morphogenesis.
- Identified interfacial energy as a critical driver of mechanomorphogenesis, controlling interface dynamics.
- Discovered a feedback loop between mechanomorphogenesis and biofilm expansion, shaping overall biofilm contour.
Conclusions:
- Biofilm morphogenesis is governed by mechanical instabilities and interfacial energy principles.
- These discovered principles of mechanomorphogenesis may apply to tissue development in higher organisms.
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