Anerudh’s paper in press @ PNAS: Dynamic switching enables efficient bacterial colonization in flow

Full article: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/05/02/1718813115.

Bacteria colonize surfaces and form dense biofilm communities in natural and infection settings where flow is present. The physical mechanisms that give rise to the spatial organization of biofilms in flow are not understood. Here, we show that the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa employs a process that we have termed dynamic switching in order to efficiently disperse throughout a flow network and maximize spatial colonization. This process dictates the spatial organization of cells during the transition from individual cells to multicellular biofilm communities. Thus, dynamic switching establishes the initial organizational structure of biofilms. The motion of many eukaryotic cell types can be described by dynamic switching, which suggests a general role of this process in a broad range of cellular systems.

KEYWORDS: Bacterial dispersal, bacterial mechanics, biofilm organization, colonization dynamics, flow, P. aeruginosa