Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 4: Bacterial Biophysics
BP 4.3: Talk
Monday, March 17, 2025, 10:15–10:30, H46
Dynamics of bacterial growth and colony development in heterogeneous mechanical landscapes — •Chenyu Jin1 and Anupam Sengupta1, 2 — 1Physics of Living Matter Group, Department of Physics and Materials Science, University of Luxembourg, 162 A, Avenue de la Faïencerie, L-1511, Luxembourg — 2Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Luxembourg, Avenue de l’Université, L-4365, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
Bacteria inhabit diverse confinements, experiencing different mechanical cues including surface stiffness and adhesion, friction and wettability [1]. Recent studies have revealed how local crowding and phenotypic noise impact bacterial growth and structural changes like the monolayer-to-multilayer transitions (MTMT)[2,3]. Yet how colonies proliferate in heterogeneous physical landscapes remain largely unknown [4]. Here we combine quantitative imaging and numerical modeling to compare the dynamics of colony growth within soft hydrogels with those in liquid media for different bacterial species. We find that the growth rate typically decreases across species, at both the colony and individual scales, while the critical area at the MTMT increases by an order of magnitude in the confined environment. An accompanying bioenergetic model offers mechanistic insights into the colony development in heterogeneous mechanical settings.
[1] NAM Araújo, LMC Janssen, et al., Soft Matter 19, 1695-1704 (2023). [2] R Wittmann, …, A Sengupta, Commun. Phys. 6, 331 (2023). [3] J Dhar, …, A Sengupta, Nat. Phys. 18, 945 (2022). [4] C Jin, A Sengupta, Biophys. Rev. 16, 2024
Keywords: Confinement; Biomechanics; Microbial mechanotransduction; Microbial adaptation; Microbial energy management