Bacteria differently deploy type-IV pili on surfaces to adapt to nutrient availability.

ABSTRACT: The structure of bacterial biofilms depends on environmental conditions, such as availability of nutrients, during biofilm formation. In turn, variations in biofilm structure in part reflect differences in bacterial motility during early biofilm formation. Pseudomonas aeruginosa deprived of nutrients remain dispersed on a surface, whereas cells supplemented with additional nutrients cluster and form microcolonies. At the single-cell scale, how bacteria modify their motility to favour distinct life cycle outcomes remains poorly understood. High-throughput algorithms were used to track thousands of P. aeruginosa moving using type-IV pili (TFP) on surfaces in varying nutrient conditions and hence identify four distinct motility types. A minimal stochastic model was used to repro

SUBMITTER: Ni L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5515259 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature