Biophysics underlying the swarm to biofilm transition

Abstract

Bacteria organize in a variety of collective states, from swarming, which has been attributed to rapid surface exploration, to biofilms, which are highly dense immobile communities attributed to stress resistance. It has been suggested that biofilm and swarming are oppositely controlled, making this transition particularly interesting for understanding the ability of bacterial colonies to adapt to challenging environments. Here, the swarm to biofilm transition is studied experimentally by analyzing the bacterial dynamics both on the individual and collective scales. We show that both biological and physical processes facilitate the transition - a few individual cells that initiate the biofilm program cause nucleation of large, scale-free stationary aggregates of trapped swarm cells. Around aggregates, cells continue swarming almost unobstructed, while inside, trapped cells slowly transform to biofilm. While our experimental findings rule out previously suggested purely physical effects as a trigger for biofilm formation, they show how physical processes, such as clustering and jamming, accelerate biofilm formation.

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Cited by in corpus (8)

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• The 2024 Motile Active Matter Roadmap
• Self-sustained patchy turbulence in shear-thinning active fluids
• Distinct impacts of polar and nematic self-propulsion on active unjamming
• Rheologically tuned modes of collective transport in active viscoelastic films
• Unified description of viscous, viscoelastic, or elastic thin active films on substrates
• Structured Interactions Drive Abrupt Transitions in the Spatial Organization of Microbial Communities
• Control of collective activity to crystallize an oscillator gas