Dynamic motility selection drives population segregation in a bacterial swarm.

ABSTRACT: Population expansion in space, or range expansion, is widespread in nature and in clinical settings. Space competition among heterogeneous subpopulations during range expansion is essential to population ecology, and it may involve the interplay of multiple factors, primarily growth and motility of individuals. Structured microbial communities provide model systems to study space competition during range expansion. Here we use bacterial swarms to investigate how single-cell motility contributes to space competition among heterogeneous bacterial populations during range expansion. Our results revealed that motility heterogeneity can promote the spatial segregation of subpopulations via a dynamic motility selection process. The dynamic motility selection is enabled by speed-dependent persist

SUBMITTER: Zuo W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7060710 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature