Emergent microscale gradients give rise to metabolic cross-feeding and antibiotic tolerance in clonal bacterial populations.

ABSTRACT: Bacteria often live in spatially structured groups such as biofilms. In these groups, cells can collectively generate gradients through the uptake and release of compounds. In turn, individual cells adapt their activities to the environment shaped by the whole group. Here, we studied how these processes can generate phenotypic variation in clonal populations and how this variation contributes to the resilience of the population to antibiotics. We grew two-dimensional populations of Escherichia coli in microfluidic chambers where limiting amounts of glucose were supplied from one side. We found that the collective metabolic activity of cells created microscale gradients where nutrient concentration varied over a few cell lengths. As a result, growth rates and gene expression levels v

SUBMITTER: Dal Co A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6792440 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature