Motile bacteria, active biohybrids and cellular physiology

This thesis investigates bacterial motility from active matter and physiological perspectives using experiments and theoretical modelling. In the first part, I design and characterize a system made of motile Escherichia coli encapsulated in giant lipid vesicles. For slightly deflated vesicles, the bacteria extrude active membrane tubes that can propel the vesicles. I show that the propulsion arises from a physical coupling between the lipid membrane tubes and the flagella of the encapsulated bacteria and develop a simple theoretical model to estimate the propulsive force. In a second part, I present two studies using motility as a tool to gain insight into bacterial physiology. First, I study the motility of dense suspensions of Escherichia coli fermenting glucose. Using new experimental data gathered by others, I develop a semi-empirical model that quantitatively links the swimming speed of the bacteria to the concentration of protonated organic acids in anaerobic conditions. Secondly, I focus on bacterial motility during complete starvation. Combining single-cell and population-level experiments, I show that Escherichia coli maintains a motile phenotype in the early stages of starvation, but that the swimming speed and motile fraction decay over a few tens of hours. I show that the complete decay of motility in these conditions happens on a much faster timescale than cell death. Interestingly, while swimming speed and flagellar motor measurements both show that the motility fully decays in about 24 h in these conditions, they seem to return different temporal dynamics

The emergence of complexity and restricted pleiotropy in adapting networks.

International audienceABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The emergence of organismal complexity has been a difficult subject for researchers because it is not readily amenable to investigation by experimental approaches. Complexity has a myriad of untested definitions and our understanding of its evolution comes primarily from static snapshots gleaned from organisms ranked on an intuitive scale. Fisher's geometric model of adaptation, which defines complexity as the number of phenotypes an organism exposes to natural selection, provides a theoretical framework to study complexity. Yet investigations of this model reveal phenotypic complexity as costly and therefore unlikely to emerge. RESULTS: We have developed a computational approach to study the emergence of complexity by subjecting neural networks to adaptive evolution in environments exacting different levels of demands. We monitored complexity by a variety of metrics. Top down metrics derived from Fisher's geometric model correlated better with the environmental demands than bottom up ones such as network size. Phenotypic complexity was found to increase towards an environment-dependent level through the emergence of restricted pleiotropy. Such pleiotropy, which confined the action of mutations to only a subset of traits, better tuned phenotypes in challenging environments. However, restricted pleiotropy also came at a cost in the form of a higher genetic load, as it required the maintenance by natural selection of more independent traits. Consequently, networks of different sizes converged in complexity when facing similar environment. CONCLUSIONS: Phenotypic complexity evolved as a function of the demands of the selective pressures, rather than the physical properties of the network architecture, such as functional size. Our results show that complexity may be more predictable, and understandable, if analyzed from the perspective of the integrated task the organism performs, rather than the physical architecture used to accomplish such tasks. Thus, top down metrics emphasizing selection may be better for describing biological complexity than bottom up ones representing size and other physical attributes

Quels tests de concept pour le développement de nouveaux produits et services ?

Concept test is a key step in the New Product Development Process. The aim of the paper is to present the different methods of tests and ways of presenting the concept, in order to see how to use these different methodologies according to the context. To achieve this, interviews with experts in market research firms as well as marketing experts in NPD within companies (both in B2C and B2B contexts) have been conducted and compared to what is written in the literature. This allowed us to build a typology of different concept tests and their sources of biases, with some suggestions to reduce them

Ab-initio vibrational properties of transition metal chalcopyrite alloys determined as high-efficiency intermediate-band photovoltaic materials

In this work, we present frozen phonon and linear response ab-initio research into the vibrational properties of the CuGaS2 chalcopyrite and transition metal substituted (CuGaS2)M alloys. These systems are potential candidates for developing a novel solar-cell material with enhanced optoelectronic properties based in the implementation of the intermediate-band concept. We have previously carried out ab-initio calculations of the electronic properties of these kinds of chalcopyrite metal alloys showing a narrow transition metal band isolated in the semiconductor band gap. The substitutes used in the present work are the 3d metal elements, Titanium and Chromium. For the theoretical calculations we use standard density functional theory at local density and generalized gradient approximation levels. We found that the optical phonon branches of the transition metal chalcopyrite, are very sensitive to the specific bonding geometry and small changes in the transition metal environment

Encapsulated bacteria deform lipid vesicles into flagellated swimmers

We study a synthetic system of motile Escherichia coli bacteria encapsulated inside giant lipid vesicles. Forces exerted by the bacteria on the inner side of the membrane are sufficient to extrude membrane tubes filled with one or several bacteria. We show that a physical coupling between the membrane tube and the flagella of the enclosed cells transforms the tube into an effective helical flagellum propelling the vesicle. We develop a simple theoretical model to estimate the propulsive force from the speed of the vesicles and demonstrate the good efficiency of this coupling mechanism. Together, these results point to design principles for conferring motility to synthetic cells

Transport properties of Layer-Antiferromagnet CuCrS2: A possible thermoelectric material

The electrical, thermal conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of the quenched, annealed and slowly cooled phases of the layer compound CuCrS2 have been reported between 15K to 300K. We also confirm the antiferromagnetic transition at 40K in them by our magnetic measurements between 2K and 300K. The crystal flakes show a minimum around 100K in their in-plane resistance behavior. For the polycrystalline pellets the resistivity depends on their flaky texture and it attains at most 10 to 20 times of the room temperature value at the lowest temperature of measurement. The temperature dependence is complex and no definite activation energy of electronic conduction can be discerned. We find that the Seebeck coefficient is between 200-450 microV/K and is unusually large for the observed resistivity values of between 5-100 mOhm-cm at room temperature. The figure of merit ZT for the thermoelectric application is 2.3 for our quenched phases, which is much larger than 1 for useful materials. The thermal conductivity K is mostly due to lattice conduction and is reduced by the disorder in Cu- occupancy in our quenched phase. A dramatic reduction of electrical and thermal conductivity is found as the antiferromagnetic transition is approached from the paramagnetic region, and K subsequently rises in the ordered phase. We discuss the transport properties as being similar to a doped Kondo-insulator

Self-organisation and convection of confined magnetotactic bacteria

Funder: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000038Funder: École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003068Abstract: Collective motion is found at all scales in biological and artificial systems, and extensive research is devoted to describing the interplay between interactions and external cues in collective dynamics. Magnetotactic bacteria constitute a remarkable example of living organisms for which motion can be easily controlled remotely. Here, we report a new type of collective motion where a uniform distribution of magnetotactic bacteria is rendered unstable by a magnetic field. A new state of “bacterial magneto-convection” results, wherein bacterial plumes emerge spontaneously perpendicular to an interface and develop into self-sustained flow convection cells. While there are similarities to gravity driven bioconvection and the Rayleigh–Bénard instability, these rely on a density mismatch between layers of the fluids. Remarkably, here no external forces are applied on the fluid and the magnetic field only exerts an external torque aligning magnetotactic bacteria with the field. Using a theoretical model based on hydrodynamic singularities, we capture quantitatively the instability and the observed long-time growth. Bacterial magneto-convection represents a new class of collective behaviour resulting only from the balance between hydrodynamic interactions and external alignment

Soft matter science and the COVID-19 pandemic

Much of the science underpinning the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic lies in the soft matter domain. Coronaviruses are composite particles with a core of nucleic acids complexed to proteins surrounded by a protein-studded lipid bilayer shell. A dominant route for transmission is via air-borne aerosols and droplets. Viral interaction with polymeric body fluids, particularly mucus, and cell membranes control their infectivity, while their interaction with skin and artificial surfaces underpins cleaning and disinfection and the efficacy of masks and other personal protective equipment. The global response to COVID-19 has highlighted gaps in the soft matter knowledge base. We survey these gaps, especially as pertaining to the transmission of the disease, and suggest questions that can (and need to) be tackled, both in response to COVID-19 and to better prepare for future viral pandemics.Comment: 15 page