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Bacteria in Polymers Form Cables That Grow into Living Gels

Experiments and modeling reveal the unexpected structure that can be seen in bacteria grown in mucus samples and biofilms.

Scientists at Caltech and Princeton University have discovered that bacterial cells growing in a solution of polymers, such as mucus, form long cables that buckle and twist on each other, building a kind of "living Jell-O." "We've discovered that when many bacteria grow in fluids containing spaghetti-like molecules called polymers, such as mucus in the lungs, they form cable-like structures that intertwine like living gels," says Sujit Datta, a professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering, and biophysics at Caltech and corresponding author of the new paper. Additional authors on the paper, "Morphogenesis of bacterial colonies in polymeric environments," are Corey A. Stevens, Gerardo Cárcamo-Oyarce, and Katharina Ribbeck of MIT; and Ned S. Wingreen (BS '84) of Princeton University.

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