Polysaccharide metabolism regulates structural colour in bacterial colonies.

ABSTRACT: The brightest colours in nature often originate from the interaction of light with materials structured at the nanoscale. Different organisms produce such coloration with a wide variety of materials and architectures. In the case of bacterial colonies, structural colours stem for the periodic organization of the cells within the colony, and while considerable efforts have been spent on elucidating the mechanisms responsible for such coloration, the biochemical processes determining the development of this effect have not been explored. Here, we study the influence of nutrients on the organization of cells from the structurally coloured bacteria Flavobacterium strain IR1. By analysing the optical properties of the colonies grown with and without specific polysaccharides, we found tha

SUBMITTER: van de Kerkhof GT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9131120 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature