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Updated: Sep 20, 2025

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Biotropic liquid crystal phase transformations in cellulose-producing bacterial communities.

Andrii Repula1, Eldho Abraham1, Vladyslav Cherpak1

  • 1Department of Physics and Chemical Physics Program, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|June 7, 2022
PubMed
Summary

Researchers discovered that biological activity in Acetobacter xylinum bacteria drives orientational ordering in soft matter systems, creating liquid crystal-like structures. Nutrient direction influences this order, leading to novel "biotropic" nematics with potential applications.

Keywords:
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Area of Science:

  • Soft Matter Physics
  • Biophysics
  • Materials Science

Background:

  • Biological systems exhibit orientational order, similar to nematic liquid crystals.
  • Living analogs of liquid crystals are found in nature, but their physical underpinnings are often unknown.
  • Bacterial biofilms show nematic-like domains, yet the physics of their formation is poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the physical mechanisms behind orientational ordering in biological systems.
  • To reveal how biological activity in Acetobacter xylinum leads to nematic ordering.
  • To explore the role of nutrient gradients in directing this biological order.

Main Methods:

  • Studied cellulose-synthesizing Acetobacter xylinum bacteria in fluid and gel states.
  • Observed systems in water and on agar, analyzing orientational order parameters.
  • Investigated the impact of nutrient feeding direction on biofilm structure.

Main Results:

  • Biological activity drives orientational ordering in bacterial soft matter, forming nematic-like structures.
  • A topological defect was observed between ordered domains.
  • Nutrient feeding direction induced a monocrystal-like order of bacteria and extracellular matrix.
  • Disorder-order transformations were observed in active nematic fluids and gels.

Conclusions:

  • Acetobacter xylinum creates "biotropic" nematics, a new class of active soft matter.
  • These systems exhibit orientational order within a specific range of biological activity.
  • The findings offer insights into biological self-organization and potential for new materials.