Bacterial Biofilm Material Properties Enable Removal and Transfer by Capillary Peeling

Biofilms, surface‐attached communities of bacterial cells, are a concern in health and in industrial operations because of persistent infections, clogging of flows, and surface fouling. Extracellular matrices provide mechanical protection to biofilm‐dwelling cells as well as protection from chemical insults, including antibiotics. Understanding how biofilm material properties arise from constituent matrix components and how these properties change in different environments is crucial for designing biofilm removal strategies. Here, using rheological characterization and surface analyses of Vibrio cholerae biofilms, it is discovered how extracellular polysaccharides, proteins, and cells function together to define biofilm mechanical and interfacial properties. Using insight gained from our measurements, a facile capillary peeling technology is developed to remove biofilms from surfaces or to transfer intact biofilms from one surface to another. It is shown that the findings are applicable to other biofilm‐forming bacterial species and to multiple surfaces. Thus, the technology and the understanding that have been developed could potentially be employed to characterize and/or treat biofilm‐related infections and industrial biofouling problems

Nanoelectromechanical coupling in fullerene peapods probed via resonant electrical transport experiments

Fullerene peapods, that is carbon nanotubes encapsulating fullerene molecules, can offer enhanced functionality with respect to empty nanotubes. However, the present incomplete understanding of how a nanotube is affected by entrapped fullerenes is an obstacle for peapods to reach their full potential in nanoscale electronic applications. Here, we investigate the effect of C60 fullerenes on electron transport via peapod quantum dots. Compared to empty nanotubes, we find an abnormal temperature dependence of Coulomb blockade oscillations, indicating the presence of a nanoelectromechanical coupling between electronic states of the nanotube and mechanical vibrations of the fullerenes. This provides a method to detect the C60 presence and to probe the interplay between electrical and mechanical excitations in peapods, which thus emerge as a new class of nanoelectromechanical systems.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Published in Nature Communications. Free online access to the published version until Sept 30th, 2010, see http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v1/n4/abs/ncomms1034.htm

Kondo effect in an integer-spin quantum dot

The Kondo effect is a key many-body phenomenon in condensed matter physics. It concerns the interaction between a localised spin and free electrons. Discovered in metals containing small amounts of magnetic impurities, it is now a fundamental mechanism in a wide class of correlated electron systems. Control over single, localised spins has become relevant also in fabricated structures due to the rapid developments in nano-electronics. Experiments have already demonstrated artificial realisations of isolated magnetic impurities at metallic surfaces, nanometer-scale magnets, controlled transitions between two-electron singlet and triplet states, and a tunable Kondo effect in semiconductor quantum dots. Here, we report an unexpected Kondo effect realised in a few-electron quantum dot containing singlet and triplet spin states whose energy difference can be tuned with a magnetic field. This effect occurs for an even number of electrons at the degeneracy between singlet and triplet states. The characteristic energy scale is found to be much larger than for the ordinary spin-1/2 case.Comment: 12 page

Self-Organization, Layered Structure, and Aggregation Enhance Persistence of a Synthetic Biofilm Consortium

Microbial consortia constitute a majority of the earth’s biomass, but little is known about how these cooperating communities persist despite competition among community members. Theory suggests that non-random spatial structures contribute to the persistence of mixed communities; when particular structures form, they may provide associated community members with a growth advantage over unassociated members. If true, this has implications for the rise and persistence of multi-cellular organisms. However, this theory is difficult to study because we rarely observe initial instances of non-random physical structure in natural populations. Using two engineered strains of Escherichia coli that constitute a synthetic symbiotic microbial consortium, we fortuitously observed such spatial self-organization. This consortium forms a biofilm and, after several days, adopts a defined layered structure that is associated with two unexpected, measurable growth advantages. First, the consortium cannot successfully colonize a new, downstream environment until it selforganizes in the initial environment; in other words, the structure enhances the ability of the consortium to survive environmental disruptions. Second, when the layered structure forms in downstream environments the consortium accumulates significantly more biomass than it did in the initial environment; in other words, the structure enhances the global productivity of the consortium. We also observed that the layered structure only assembles in downstream environments that are colonized by aggregates from a previous, structured community. These results demonstrate roles for self-organization and aggregation in persistence of multi-cellular communities, and also illustrate a role for the techniques of synthetic biology in elucidating fundamental biological principles

Incipient Cognition Solves the Spatial Reciprocity Conundrum of Cooperation

Background: From the simplest living organisms to human societies, cooperation among individuals emerges as a paradox difficult to explain and describe mathematically, although very often observed in reality. Evolutionary game theory offers an excellent toolbar to investigate this issue. Spatial structure has been one of the first mechanisms promoting cooperation; however, alone it only opens a narrow window of viability. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we equip individuals with incipient cognitive abilities, and investigate the evolution of cooperation in a spatial world where retaliation, forgiveness, treason and mutualism may coexist, as individuals engage in Prisoner’s Dilemma games. In the model, individuals are able to distinguish their partners and act towards them based on previous interactions. We show how the simplest level of cognition, alone, can lead to the emergence of cooperation. Conclusions/Significance: Despite the incipient nature of the individuals ’ cognitive abilities, cooperation emerges for unprecedented values of the temptation to cheat, being also robust to invasion by cheaters, errors in decision making an

Is Bacterial Persistence a Social Trait?

The ability of bacteria to evolve resistance to antibiotics has been much reported in recent years. It is less well-known that within populations of bacteria there are cells which are resistant due to a non-inherited phenotypic switch to a slow-growing state. Although such ‘persister’ cells are receiving increasing attention, the evolutionary forces involved have been relatively ignored. Persistence has a direct benefit to cells because it allows survival during catastrophes–a form of bet-hedging. However, persistence can also provide an indirect benefit to other individuals, because the reduced growth rate can reduce competition for limiting resources. This raises the possibility that persistence is a social trait, which can be influenced by kin selection. We develop a theoretical model to investigate the social consequences of persistence. We predict that selection for persistence is increased when: (a) cells are related (e.g. a single, clonal lineage); and (b) resources are scarce. Our model allows us to predict how the level of persistence should vary with time, across populations, in response to intervention strategies and the level of competition. More generally, our results clarify the links between persistence and other bet-hedging or social behaviours

Prediction by Promoter Logic in Bacterial Quorum Sensing

Quorum-sensing systems mediate chemical communication between bacterial cells, coordinating cell-density-dependent processes like biofilm formation and virulence-factor expression. In the proteobacterial LuxI/LuxR quorum sensing paradigm, a signaling molecule generated by an enzyme (LuxI) diffuses between cells and allosterically stimulates a transcriptional regulator (LuxR) to activate its cognate promoter (pR). By expressing either LuxI or LuxR in positive feedback from pR, these versatile systems can generate smooth (monostable) or abrupt (bistable) density-dependent responses to suit the ecological context. Here we combine theory and experiment to demonstrate that the promoter logic of pR – its measured activity as a function of LuxI and LuxR levels – contains all the biochemical information required to quantitatively predict the responses of such feedback loops. The interplay of promoter logic with feedback topology underlies the versatility of the LuxI/LuxR paradigm: LuxR and LuxI positive-feedback systems show dramatically different responses, while a dual positive/negative-feedback system displays synchronized oscillations. These results highlight the dual utility of promoter logic: to probe microscopic parameters and predict macroscopic phenotype

Accuracy of direct gradient sensing by single cells

Many types of cells are able to accurately sense shallow gradients of chemicals across their diameters, allowing the cells to move toward or away from chemical sources. This chemotactic ability relies on the remarkable capacity of cells to infer gradients from particles randomly arriving at cell-surface receptors by diffusion. Whereas the physical limits of concentration sensing by cells have been explored, there is no theory for the physical limits of gradient sensing. Here, we derive such a theory, using as models a perfectly absorbing sphere and a perfectly monitoring sphere, which, respectively, infer gradients from the absorbed surface particle density or the positions of freely diffusing particles inside a spherical volume. We find that the perfectly absorbing sphere is superior to the perfectly monitoring sphere, both for concentration and gradient sensing, because previously observed particles are never remeasured. The superiority of the absorbing sphere helps explain the presence at the surfaces of cells of signal-degrading enzymes, such as PDE for cAMP in Dictyostelium discoideum (Dicty) and BAR1 for mating factor α in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (budding yeast). Quantitatively, our theory compares favorably with recent measurements of Dicty moving up a cAMP gradient, suggesting these cells operate near the physical limits of gradient detection

Correction to: Bacterial Biofilm Material Properties Enable Removal and Transfer by Capillary Peeling

© 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim In the published communication, the author lists of several of the references were presented incorrectly, with the first name of some of the authors given as the family name. These references are corrected here: [3] M. G. Mazza, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 2016, 49, 203001. [5c] V. D. Gordon, M. Davis-Fields, K. Kovach, C. A. Rodesney, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 2017, 50, 223002. [11] P. Shivapooja, Q. Wang, B. Orihuela, D. Rittschof, G. P. López, X. Zhao, Adv. Mater. 2013, 25, 1430

Mechanisms for extra conductance plateaus in quantum wires

Spin-density-functional theory is employed to calculate the conductance G through a quasi-one-dimensional quantum wire. In addition to the usual subband quantization plateaus at G=n(2e(2)/h), we find additional structures at (n+1/2)(2e(2)/h). The extra structures appear whether or not the electrons in the wire spin polarize. However, only the spin-polarized case reproduces the experimental temperature and magnetic field dependences