Growing bacteria line up single-file, then buckle in liquid crystals
When scientists study bacteria that are not in a Petri dish or a test tube but in environments that more closely mimic their actual microbial habitats, they often find delightfully unexpected behaviors. For Sujit Datta, a professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering and biophysics at Caltech, those oddities are an invitation to apply physics to exciting new puzzles.
Scientists have discovered that bacteria align in single-file chains within liquid crystal fluids, a behavior that buckles in a unique way. The findings, reported in the journal PNAS, challenge existing understanding of bacterial growth and organization. Researchers at Caltech, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill collaborated to model and observe this phenomenon.
In liquid crystal fluids, bacteria form long, single-cell-wide chains that grow straight until they buckle locally, unlike previously observed long, intertwined cables. This unusual buckling is attributed to the liquid crystal's high viscosity and bending elasticity, which push bacteria into alignment and create localized compression forces.
The study opens new avenues for understanding bacterial colony morphology, communication, nutrient access, and antibiotic tolerance.
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