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Monitoring Spatial Segregation in Surface Colonizing Microbial Populations
Published on: October 29, 2016
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Colony morphogenesis regulates sporulation dynamics in bacterial biofilms.
Joshua M Jones1,2,3, Meiyi Yao4, Andrew Mugler4
1Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|February 23, 2026
Summary
Bacillus subtilis biofilms show how cell differentiation and colony expansion are linked. Faster growth separates sporulation from expansion, impacting biofilm structure and dormancy.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Systems Biology
- Developmental Biology
Background:
- Multicellular systems exhibit phenotypic heterogeneity across molecular to population scales.
- Bacillus subtilis biofilms are models for studying collective cell behavior and differentiation.
- Sporulation, triggered by starvation, is a key differentiation process in Bacillus subtilis.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the feedback between Bacillus subtilis colony expansion and sporulation distribution.
- Understand how spatial organization of sporulation impacts biofilm development and dormancy.
- Explore the interplay between cell behavior, collective expansion physics, and differentiation.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Bacillus subtilis as a model organism for biofilm studies.
- Employed mathematical modeling to analyze colony expansion and sporulation dynamics.
- Used mutants with altered biofilm morphogenesis to probe relationships between expansion and sporulation.
Main Results:
- Intact sporulation regulation led to high-frequency sporulation early in biofilm growth.
- Sporulation formed a wave, organizing biofilms towards internal dormancy.
- Faster colony expansion resulted in greater separation between growth and sporulation zones.
- Non-sporulating cells at the edge maintained biofilm expansion.
Conclusions:
- Demonstrated essential interplay between cell behavior and collective expansion physics in organizing differentiation.
- Showcased how spatial patterning of sporulation drives biofilm development and dormancy.
- Highlighted the dynamic relationship between growth, differentiation, and physical forces in multicellular communities.
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