Parametric studies of metabolic cooperativity in Escherichia coli colonies: Strain and geometric confinement effects.

ABSTRACT: Characterizing the complex spatial and temporal interactions among cells in a biological system (i.e. bacterial colony, microbiome, tissue, etc.) remains a challenge. Metabolic cooperativity in these systems can arise due to the subtle interplay between microenvironmental conditions and the cells' regulatory machinery, often involving cascades of intra- and extracellular signalling molecules. In the simplest of cases, as demonstrated in a recent study of the model organism Escherichia coli, metabolic cross-feeding can arise in monoclonal colonies of bacteria driven merely by spatial heterogeneity in the availability of growth substrates; namely, acetate, glucose and oxygen. Another recent study demonstrated that even closely related E. coli strains evolved different glucose utilization and

SUBMITTER: Peterson JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5562313 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature