Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Synthetic Microbial Consortia in Microfluidic Devices.

ABSTRACT: Synthetic microbial consortia consist of two or more engineered strains that grow together and share the same resources. When intercellular signaling pathways are included in the engineered strains, close proximity of the microbes can generate complex dynamic behaviors that are difficult to obtain using a single strain. However, when a consortium is not cultured in a well-mixed environment the constituent strains passively compete for space as they grow and divide, complicating cell-cell signaling. Here, we explore the temporal dynamics of the spatial distribution of consortia cocultured in microfluidic devices. To do this, we grew two different strains of Escherichia coli in microfluidic devices with cell-trapping regions (traps) of several different designs. We found that the size

SUBMITTER: Alnahhas RN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6754295 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature