Physics of bacterial colony spreading

Permanent staff: Maxime Deforet.

Active matter, a term coined by physicists to describe a large number of agents consuming energy to move or exert mechanical forces, has become a major field of research in biological physics. A colony of motile bacteria is a good example of growing active matter: each cell can grow and divide, and it can move around thanks to its flagella. Growing active matter with microswimmers raises specific questions: What is the contribution of growth in long-range ordering patterns that are typically obtained in dense bacterial suspension? What is the influence of swimming modes, namely the pusher and puller mode used to describe two types of microswimmers, in tetratic and nematic alignement? How do physical effects translate across scales? We use the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa as an experimental model system to answer these questions. We use a suite of imaging devices and methods across all scales, from single-cell to the whole colony, and with transmission, reflection, and fluorescence imaging, as well as genetic engineering to modulate motility as an experimental variable. 


Publications

2024

DiSTNet2D: Leveraging Long-Range Temporal Information for Efficient Segmentation and Tracking - PRX Life (Apr. 2024)
J. Ollion , M. Maliet , C. Giuglaris , E. Vacher , M. Deforet
  URL Full text PDF Bibtex doi:https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXLife.2.023004

2023

Direct comparison of spatial transcriptional heterogeneity across diverse Bacillus subtilis biofilm communities - Nature communications (Nov. 2023)
Y. Dergham , D. Le Coq , P. Nicolas , E. Bidnenko , S. Dérozier , M. Deforet , E. Huillet , P. Sanchez-Vizuete , J. Deschamps , K. Hamze , R. Briandet
  URL Full text PDF Bibtex doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43386-w
DistNet2D: Leveraging long-range temporal information for efficient segmentation and tracking - Arxiv (Oct. 2023)
J. Ollion , M. Maliet , C. Giuglaris , E. Vacher , M. Deforet
  URL Full text PDF Bibtex doi:https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2310.19641
Long-range alteration of the physical environment mediates cooperation between Pseudomonas aeruginosa swarming colonies - Environmental Microbiology (Mar. 2023)
M. Deforet
  URL Full text PDF Bibtex doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16373