Regensburg 2022 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 12: Poster 2
BP 12.60: Poster
Dienstag, 6. September 2022, 17:30–19:30, P4
Self-generated oxygen gradients control the collective aggregation of photosynthetic microbes — •Alexandros Fragkopoulos1,2, Jeremy Vachier1, Johannes Frey1, Flora-Maud Le Menn1, Marco G. Mazza1,3, Michael Wilczek1,4, David Zwicker1, and Oliver Bäumchen1,2 — 1Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, 37077 Göttingen, Germany — 2University of Bayreuth, Experimental Physics V, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany — 3Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Department of Mathematical Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK — 4University of Bayreuth, Theoretical Physics I, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
In the absence of light, photosynthetic microbes can still sustain essential metabolic functionalities and motility by switching their energy production from photosynthesis to oxygen respiration. For suspensions of motile C. reinhardtii cells above a critical density, we demonstrate that this switch reversibly controls collective microbial aggregation [1]. Aerobic respiration dominates over photosynthesis in conditions of low light, which causes the microbial motility to sensitively depend on the local availability of oxygen. For dense microbial populations in self-generated oxygen gradients, microfluidic experiments and continuum theory based on a reaction-diffusion mechanism show that oxygen-regulated motility enables the collective emergence of highly localized regions of high and low cell densities.
[1] Fragkopoulos et al., J.R. Soc. Interface 18, 20210553 (2021).