Self-organization of cellulose-producing microbial communities during biofilm spreading

Matrix-secreting microorganisms form self-organizing biofilms that provide protection and mechanical robustness to the embedded microbial communities. Biofilms made by cellulose-producing bacteria from Komagataeibacter species are widely used for food and bio-manufacturing, but their self-organization in mixed microbial communities has not yet been reported. Here, we investigate the self-organization and spreading of biofilm communities comprising distinct cellulose-producing variants of K. sucrofermentans. Using fluorescently labeled strains grown on solid culture medium, mixed pairs of variants produced striking spatial patterns, with distinct strains dominating the inner and outer regions of the biofilm. The experiments reveal that pattern formation and the enrichment of one strain in the microbial biofilms are affected by the growth rate, cellulose-production rate, and expansion rate of the constituent bacterial strains. Friction between the cellulose-producing bacteria and the underlying substrate was found to be an important phenotype governing cell segregation in the microbial communities, while cell dominance within the biofilm was linked to the cellulose-producing ability of each strain. Understanding the effect of these traits on the cell composition and structure of microbial communities provides new control parameters to tune the formation of biofilms made by mixed cellulose-producing variants.