Self-organized canals enable long range directed material transport in bacterial communities

Li，Ye1; Liu，Shiqi1; Zhang，Yingdan2; Seng，Zi Jing3; Xu，Haoran1; Yang，Liang2; Wu，Yilin1

2022-09-01

10.7554/eLife.79780

eLife   Impact Factor & Quartile

2050-084X

2050-084X

Long-range material transport is essential to maintain the physiological functions of multicellular organisms such as animals and plants. By contrast, material transport in bacteria is often short-ranged and limited by diffusion. Here we report a unique form of actively regulated long-range directed material transport in structured bacterial communities. Using Pseudomonas aeruginosa colonies as a model system, we discover that a large-scale and temporally evolving open channel system spontaneously develops in the colony via shear-induced banding. Fluid flows in the open channels support high-speed (up to 450 µm/s) transport of cells and outer membrane vesicles over centimeters, and help to eradicate colonies of a competing species Staphylococcus aureus. The open channels are reminiscent of human-made canals for cargo transport, and the channel flows are driven by interfacial tension mediated by cell-secreted biosurfactants. The spatial-temporal dynamics of fluid flows in the open channels are qualitatively described by flow profile measurement and mathematical modeling. Our findings demonstrate that mechanochemical coupling between interfacial force and biosurfactant kinetics can coordinate large-scale material transport in primitive life forms, suggesting a new principle to engineer self-organized microbial communities.

long-range transport interfacial mechanics pattern formation Pseudomonas aeruginosa Staphylococcus aureus Other

SCI

English

NI Journal Papers

Corresponding

Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province[2020B1515020003];

Life Sciences & Biomedicine - Other Topics

Biology

WOS:000933569000001

eLIFE SCIENCES PUBL LTD

2-s2.0-85139858283

Scopus

1.Department of Physics and Shenzhen Research Institute,The Chinese University of Hong Kong,Shatin, NT,Hong Kong
2.School of Medicine,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,China
3.Singapore Center for Environmental Life Science Engineering,Nanyang Technological University,Singapore

Li，Ye,Liu，Shiqi,Zhang，Yingdan,et al. Self-organized canals enable long range directed material transport in bacterial communities[J]. eLife,2022,11.

Li，Ye.,Liu，Shiqi.,Zhang，Yingdan.,Seng，Zi Jing.,Xu，Haoran.,...&Wu，Yilin.(2022).Self-organized canals enable long range directed material transport in bacterial communities.eLife,11.

Li，Ye,et al."Self-organized canals enable long range directed material transport in bacterial communities".eLife 11(2022).