Metabolic activity controls the emergence of coherent flows in microbial suspensions.

ABSTRACT: Photosynthetic microbes have evolved and successfully adapted to the ever-changing environmental conditions in complex microhabitats throughout almost all ecosystems on Earth. In the absence of light, they can sustain their biological functionalities through aerobic respiration, and even in anoxic conditions through anaerobic metabolic activity. For a suspension of photosynthetic microbes in an anaerobic environment, individual cellular motility is directly controlled by its photosynthetic activity, i.e. the intensity of the incident light absorbed by chlorophyll. The effects of the metabolic activity on the collective motility on the population level, however, remain elusive so far. Here, we demonstrate that at high light intensities, a suspension of photosynthetically active microbes exh

SUBMITTER: Fragkopoulos AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11789023 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature