Mycobacterium smegmatis Expands Across Surfaces by Hydraulic Sliding.

ABSTRACT: Passive sliding motility allows Mycobacterium smegmatis to spread over soft agar surfaces. Usually, bacterial growth and reduced surface adhesion push individual bacteria outwards, resulting in circular colonies; however, more complex, dendritic colonies have also been reported. Although we could readily reproduce the circular morphotype, our non-circular colonies (hereafter digitate colonies) differed from dendritic colonies. Digitate colonies were characterised by centimetre-long, linear protrusions consisting of surface pellicle and inner biofilm components surrounding a central channel that was filled with a free-flowing suspension of M. smegmatis and aggregates. Time-lapse microscopy showed that the expansion of the fluid-filled channel resulted in lengthwise extension of the protrusi

SUBMITTER: Pollitt EJG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12568390 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature