Hydrodynamics and collective behavior of the tethered bacterium Thiovulum majus.

ABSTRACT: The ecology and dynamics of many microbial systems, particularly in mats and soils, are shaped by how bacteria respond to evolving nutrient gradients and microenvironments. Here we show how the response of the sulfur-oxidizing bacterium Thiovulum majus to changing oxygen gradients causes cells to organize into large-scale fronts. To study this phenomenon, we develop a technique to isolate and enrich these bacteria from the environment. Using this enrichment culture, we observe the formation and dynamics of T. majus fronts in oxygen gradients. We show that these dynamics can be understood as occurring in two steps. First, chemotactic cells moving up the oxygen gradient form a front that propagates with constant velocity. We then show, through observation and mathematical analysis, that this

SUBMITTER: Petroff A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3918793 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature