Swarming ring patterns in bacterial colonies exposed to ultraviolet radiation

We report a novel morphological transition in a Bacillus subtilis colony initially growing under ambient conditions, after ultraviolet radiation exposure. The bacteria in the central regions of the colonies are observed to migrate towards the colony edge forming a ring during uniform spatial exposur...

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Veröffentlicht in:Physical review letters 2001-10, Vol.87 (15), p.158102-158102/4, Article 158102
Hauptverfasser: Delprato, A M, Samadani, A, Kudrolli, A, Tsimring, L S
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:We report a novel morphological transition in a Bacillus subtilis colony initially growing under ambient conditions, after ultraviolet radiation exposure. The bacteria in the central regions of the colonies are observed to migrate towards the colony edge forming a ring during uniform spatial exposure. When the radiation is switched off, the colonies were observed to grow both inward into the evacuated regions as well as outward indicating that the pattern is not formed due to depletion of nutrients at the center of the colony. We also propose a reaction-diffusion model in which waste-limited chemotaxis initiated by the UV radiation leads to the observed phenomenology.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.158102