Nutrient Gradients Mediate Complex Colony-Level Antibiotic Responses in Structured Microbial Populations.

ABSTRACT: Antibiotic treatments often fail to eliminate bacterial populations due to heterogeneity in how individual cells respond to the drug. In structured bacterial populations such as biofilms, bacterial metabolism and environmental transport processes lead to an emergent phenotypic structure and self-generated nutrient gradients toward the interior of the colony, which can affect cell growth, gene expression and susceptibility to the drug. Even in single cells, survival depends on a dynamic interplay between the drug's action and the expression of resistance genes. How expression of resistance is coordinated across populations in the presence of such spatiotemporal environmental coupling remains elusive. Using a custom microfluidic device, we observe the response of spatially extended microcolo

SUBMITTER: Stevanovic M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9093743 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature