Evaporation-induced hydrodynamics control plasmid transfer during surface-associated microbial growth.

ABSTRACT: Droplet evaporation is a general process in unsaturated environments that results in micro-scale hydrodynamic flows which in turn determine the spatial distributions of microbial cells across surfaces. These spatial distributions can have significant effects on the development and functioning of surface-associated microbial communities, with consequences for important processes such as the spread of plasmids. Here, we experimentally quantified how evaporation-induced hydrodynamic processes modulate the initial deposition patterns of microbial cells (via the coffee ring effect and Marangoni convection) and how these patterns control the spread of an antibiotic resistance-encoding plasmid during surface-associated growth. We found that plasmid spread is a function of the initial density of c

SUBMITTER: Ruan C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10444754 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature