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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 7: Posters: Statistical Physics in Biological Systems
BP 7.3: Poster
Monday, March 14, 2011, 17:15–20:00, P3
Universal clustering properties in bacteria — •Fernando Peruani1, Joern Starruss2, Vladimir Jakovljevic3, Lotte Sogaard-Andersen3, Marks Baer4, and Andreas Deutsch3 — 1Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany — 2Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing - Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany — 3Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany — 4Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Berlin, Germany
Collective behaviour of individual cells marks the onset of the transition to multicellularity. This transition is thought to rely on some specific intercellular communication between cells. In this talk, we will show that the transition from single cell to collective behaviour in a Myxococcus xanthus mutant can be understood as a dynamical self-assembly process where no biochemical communication is required. The transition is characterized by a scale-free cluster size distribution that emerges at a critical cell density. The experimental data is consistent with predictions from a mathematical model in which bacteria are described as self-propelled rods with merely steric interactions. Our findings provide a universal mechanism for pattern formation in bacteria that only depends on the physical properties of the system, in particular, on cell shape and cell density. Interestingly, similar results have been reported for Bacillus subtilis.