Dataset Information

Spatio-temporal assembly of functional mineral scaffolds within microbial biofilms.

ABSTRACT: Historically, multicellular bacterial communities, known as biofilms, have been thought to be held together solely by a self-produced extracellular matrix. Our study identified a novel mechanism maintaining Bacillus subtilis and Mycobacterium smegmatis biofilms-active production of calcite minerals. We studied, for the first time, the effects of mutants defective in biomineralization and calcite formation on biofilm development, resilience and morphology. We demonstrated that an intrinsic rise in carbon dioxide levels within the biofilm is a strong trigger for the initiation of calcite-dependent patterning. The calcite-dependent patterns provide resistance to environmental insults and increase the overall fitness of the microbial community. Our results suggest that it is highly feasible that the formation of mineral scaffolds plays a cardinal and conserved role in bacterial multicellularity.

SUBMITTER: Oppenheimer-Shaanan Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5515261 | biostudies-other | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Spatio-temporal assembly of functional mineral scaffolds within microbial biofilms.

Oppenheimer-Shaanan Yaara Y Sibony-Nevo Odelia O Bloom-Ackermann Zohar Z Suissa Ronit R Steinberg Nitai N Kartvelishvily Elena E Brumfeld Vlad V Kolodkin-Gal Ilana I

NPJ biofilms and microbiomes 20160302

Historically, multicellular bacterial communities, known as biofilms, have been thought to be held together solely by a self-produced extracellular matrix. Our study identified a novel mechanism maintaining <i>Bacillus subtilis</i> and <i>Mycobacterium smegmatis</i> biofilms-active production of calcite minerals. We studied, for the first time, the effects of mutants defective in biomineralization and calcite formation on biofilm development, resilience and morphology. We demonstrated that an in ...[more]

PMID: 28721240

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Project description:The metabolic capabilities of the species and the local environment shape the microbial interactions in a community either through the exchange of metabolic products or the competition for the resources. Cells are often arranged in close proximity to each other, creating a crowded environment that unevenly reduce the diffusion of nutrients. Herein, we investigated how the crowding conditions and metabolic variability among cells shape the dynamics of microbial communities. For this, we developed CROMICS, a spatio-temporal framework that combines techniques such as individual-based modeling, scaled particle theory, and thermodynamic flux analysis to explicitly incorporate the cell metabolism and the impact of the presence of macromolecular components on the nutrients diffusion. This framework was used to study two archetypical microbial communities (i) Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica that cooperate with each other by exchanging metabolites, and (ii) two E. coli with different production level of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) that compete for the same nutrients. In the mutualistic community, our results demonstrate that crowding enhanced the fitness of cooperative mutants by reducing the leakage of metabolites from the region where they are produced, avoiding the resource competition with non-cooperative cells. Moreover, we also show that E. coli EPS-secreting mutants won the competition against the non-secreting cells by creating less dense structures (i.e. increasing the spacing among the cells) that allow mutants to expand and reach regions closer to the nutrient supply point. A modest enhancement of the relative fitness of EPS-secreting cells over the non-secreting ones were found when the crowding effect was taken into account in the simulations. The emergence of cell-cell interactions and the intracellular conflicts arising from the trade-off between growth and the secretion of metabolites or EPS could provide a local competitive advantage to one species, either by supplying more cross-feeding metabolites or by creating a less dense neighborhood.

Dataset Information

Spatio-temporal assembly of functional mineral scaffolds within microbial biofilms.

Publications

Spatio-temporal assembly of functional mineral scaffolds within microbial biofilms.

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