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Senyuk B, Wu JS, Smalyukh II. Out-of-equilibrium interactions and collective locomotion of colloidal spheres with squirming of nematoelastic multipoles. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2322710121. [PMID: 38652740 PMCID: PMC11067049 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2322710121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2023] [Accepted: 03/14/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Many living and artificial systems show similar emergent behavior and collective motions on different scales, starting from swarms of bacteria to synthetic active particles, herds of mammals, and crowds of people. What all these systems often have in common is that new collective properties like flocking emerge from interactions between individual self-propelled or driven units. Such systems are naturally out-of-equilibrium and propel at the expense of consumed energy. Mimicking nature by making self-propelled or externally driven particles and studying their individual and collective motility may allow for deeper understanding of physical underpinnings behind collective motion of large groups of interacting objects or beings. Here, using a soft matter system of colloids immersed into a liquid crystal, we show that resulting so-called nematoelastic multipoles can be set into a bidirectional locomotion by external oscillating electric fields. Out-of-equilibrium elastic interactions between such colloidal objects lead to collective flock-like behaviors emerging from time-varying elasticity-mediated interactions between externally driven propelling particles. Repulsive elastic interactions in the equilibrium state can be turned into attractive interactions in the out-of-equilibrium state under applied external electric fields. We probe this behavior at different number densities of colloidal particles and show that particles in dense dispersions collectively select the same direction of a coherent motion due to elastic interactions between near neighbors. In our experimentally implemented design, their motion is highly ordered and without clustering or jamming often present in other colloidal transport systems, which is promising for technological and fundamental-science applications, like nano-cargo transport, out-of-equilibrium assembly, and microrobotics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bohdan Senyuk
- Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO80309
- International Institute for Sustainability with Knotted Chiral Meta Matter (WPI-SKCM), Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima739-0046, Japan
| | - Jin-Sheng Wu
- Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO80309
| | - Ivan I. Smalyukh
- Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO80309
- International Institute for Sustainability with Knotted Chiral Meta Matter (WPI-SKCM), Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima739-0046, Japan
- Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO80309
- Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and University of Colorado, Boulder, CO80309
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Dayton H, Kiss J, Wei M, Chauhan S, LaMarre E, Cornell WC, Morgan CJ, Janakiraman A, Min W, Tomer R, Price-Whelan A, Nirody JA, Dietrich LEP. Cellular arrangement impacts metabolic activity and antibiotic tolerance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. PLoS Biol 2024; 22:e3002205. [PMID: 38300958 PMCID: PMC10833521 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2023] [Accepted: 12/19/2023] [Indexed: 02/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Cells must access resources to survive, and the anatomy of multicellular structures influences this access. In diverse multicellular eukaryotes, resources are provided by internal conduits that allow substances to travel more readily through tissue than they would via diffusion. Microbes growing in multicellular structures, called biofilms, are also affected by differential access to resources and we hypothesized that this is influenced by the physical arrangement of the cells. In this study, we examined the microanatomy of biofilms formed by the pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa and discovered that clonal cells form striations that are packed lengthwise across most of a mature biofilm's depth. We identified mutants, including those defective in pilus function and in O-antigen attachment, that show alterations to this lengthwise packing phenotype. Consistent with the notion that cellular arrangement affects access to resources within the biofilm, we found that while the wild type shows even distribution of tested substrates across depth, the mutants show accumulation of substrates at the biofilm boundaries. Furthermore, we found that altered cellular arrangement within biofilms affects the localization of metabolic activity, the survival of resident cells, and the susceptibility of subpopulations to antibiotic treatment. Our observations provide insight into cellular features that determine biofilm microanatomy, with consequences for physiological differentiation and drug sensitivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Dayton
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Julie Kiss
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Mian Wei
- Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Shradha Chauhan
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Emily LaMarre
- Program in Biology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - William Cole Cornell
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Chase J. Morgan
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Anuradha Janakiraman
- Program in Biology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Wei Min
- Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Raju Tomer
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Alexa Price-Whelan
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Jasmine A. Nirody
- Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Lars E. P. Dietrich
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
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Dayton H, Kiss J, Wei M, Chauhan S, LaMarre E, Cornell WC, Morgan CJ, Janakiraman A, Min W, Tomer R, Price-Whelan A, Nirody JA, Dietrich LE. Cell arrangement impacts metabolic activity and antibiotic tolerance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.06.20.545666. [PMID: 37645902 PMCID: PMC10462148 DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.20.545666] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/31/2023]
Abstract
Cells must access resources to survive, and the anatomy of multicellular structures influences this access. In diverse multicellular eukaryotes, resources are provided by internal conduits that allow substances to travel more readily through tissue than they would via diffusion. Microbes growing in multicellular structures, called biofilms, are also affected by differential access to resources and we hypothesized that this is influenced by the physical arrangement of the cells. In this study, we examined the microanatomy of biofilms formed by the pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa and discovered that clonal cells form striations that are packed lengthwise across most of a mature biofilm's depth. We identified mutants, including those defective in pilus function and in O-antigen attachment, that show alterations to this lengthwise packing phenotype. Consistent with the notion that cellular arrangement affects access to resources within the biofilm, we found that while the wild type shows even distribution of tested substrates across depth, the mutants show accumulation of substrates at the biofilm boundaries. Furthermore, we found that altered cellular arrangement within biofilms affects the localization of metabolic activity, the survival of resident cells, and the susceptibility of subpopulations to antibiotic treatment. Our observations provide insight into cellular features that determine biofilm microanatomy, with consequences for physiological differentiation and drug sensitivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Dayton
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 10025
| | - Julie Kiss
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 10025
| | - Mian Wei
- Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, NY 10025
| | - Shradha Chauhan
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 10025
| | - Emily LaMarre
- Program in Biology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY 10016
| | | | - Chase J. Morgan
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 10025
| | - Anuradha Janakiraman
- Program in Biology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY 10016
| | - Wei Min
- Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, NY 10025
| | - Raju Tomer
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 10025
| | - Alexa Price-Whelan
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 10025
| | - Jasmine A Nirody
- Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
| | - Lars E.P. Dietrich
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 10025
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