• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Monday, February 6, 2023
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Bioengineering

Bioengineering Study Finds that Bacteria Organize According to ‘Rich-Get-Richer’ Principle

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
May 20, 2013
in Bioengineering, Science News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Bacteria on a surface wander around and often organize into highly resilient communities known as biofilms. It turns out that they organize in a rich-get-richer pattern similar to many economies, according to a new study by researchers at UCLA, Northwestern University and the University of Washington.

Bacteria Organize According to 'Rich-Get-Richer' Principle

The study, published online May 8 in the journal Nature, is the first to identify the strategy by which bacteria form the micro-colonies that become biofilms, which can cause lethal infections. The research may have significant implications for battling stubborn bacterial infections that do not respond to antibiotics.

Bacteria in biofilms behave very differently from free-swimming bacteria. Within biofilms, bacteria change their gene expression patterns and are far more resistant to antibiotics and the body’s immune defenses than individual, free-swimming bacteria, because they mass together and are protected by a matrix of proteins, DNA and long, chain-like sugar molecules called polysaccharides. This makes seemingly routine infections potentially deadly.

Gerard Wong, professor of bioengineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, member of the California NanoSystems Institute, and professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCLA; Erik Luijten, professor of materials science and engineering and of applied mathematics at Northwestern University; and Matthew R. Parsek, professor of microbiology at the University of Washington, led a team of researchers who elucidated the early formation of biofilms by developing algorithms that describe the movements of the different strains of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa and by conducting computer simulations to map the bacteria’s movements. P. aeruginosa can cause lethal, difficult-to-treat infections, including those found in cystic fibrosis and AIDS patients.

Surprisingly, the researchers found that the individual bacteria that start the formation of micro-colonies have no special, inherent qualities. As bacteria move across a surface, they leave trails composed of a specific type of polysaccharide called Psl. “Some of the bacteria remained fixed in position,” Parsek said. “But some moved around on the surface, apparently randomly, but leaving a trail that influenced the surface behavior of other bacteria that encountered it.”

Bacteria arriving later also lay trails, but their movements tend to be guided by the trails from the pioneers. This network of trails creates a process of positive feedback and enables bacteria to organize into micro-colonies that mature into biofilms. By being at the right place at the right time, and by using communally produced polysaccharides, a small number of lucky cells — often ones that come later — become the first to form micro-colonies. Cells in micro-colonies have many survival advantages over other bacteria.

Interestingly, these biofilms develop in accordance with Zipf’s Law, which has been used to describe the phenomenon of a small portion of a population controlling the majority of that population’s wealth. “It turns out bacteria do something similar,” Wong said. “A small number of bacteria have the best access to the lion’s share of communally produced polysaccharides.”

Wong said the research may provide insight into how to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria. “Typically, when we want to get rid of bacteria, we just kill them with antibiotics,” he said. “As a result, they develop defense mechanisms and grow stronger. Maybe that’s not always the best way to treat biofilms. Perhaps we can regulate bacterial communities the way we regulate economies. Our work suggests that new treatment options may use incentives and communications, as well as punishment, to control bacterial communities.”

Luijten said that the group’s findings were possible because the researchers drew knowledge from their various individual disciplines. “Only through combination of the totally different types of expertise of three different research groups has it been possible to disentangle what is going on, and how polysaccharides influence the organization of bacteria into micro-colonies.”

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by UCLA Newsroom.

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

World Cancer Day

Health Equity Report Card pilot project to help close the care gap highlighted on World Cancer Day

February 4, 2023
AC hum noise-based detection using HumTouch.

Tech that turns household surfaces into touch sensors is a touch closer to application

February 4, 2023

Preference for naturally talented over hard workers emerges in childhood, HKUST researchers find

February 4, 2023

Black South Africans report higher life satisfaction and are at less risk for depression post-migration, MU study finds

February 3, 2023
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Jean du Terrail, Senior Machine Learning Scientist at Owkin

    Nature Medicine publishes breakthrough Owkin research on the first ever use of federated learning to train deep learning models on multiple hospitals’ histopathology data

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • First made-in-Singapore antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) approved to enter clinical trials

    58 shares
    Share 23 Tweet 15
  • Metal-free batteries raise hope for more sustainable and economical grids

    41 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • One-pot reaction creates versatile building block for bioactive molecules

    37 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Health Equity Report Card pilot project to help close the care gap highlighted on World Cancer Day

Tech that turns household surfaces into touch sensors is a touch closer to application

Preference for naturally talented over hard workers emerges in childhood, HKUST researchers find

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 42 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In