Species-Independent Attraction to Biofilms through Electrical Signaling.

Bacteria residing within biofilm communities can coordinate their behavior through cell-to-cell signaling. However, it remains unclear if these signals can also influence the behavior of distant cells that are not part of the community. Using a microfluidic approach, we find that potassium ion channel-mediated electrical signaling generated by a Bacillus subtilis biofilm can attract distant cells. Integration of experiments and mathematical modeling indicates that extracellular potassium emitted from the biofilm alters the membrane potential of distant cells, thereby directing their motility. This electrically mediated attraction appears to be a generic mechanism that enables cross-species interactions, as Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells also become attracted to the electrical signal released by the B. subtilis biofilm. Cells within a biofilm community can thus not only coordinate their own behavior but also influence the behavior of diverse bacteria at a distance through long-range electrical signaling. PAPERCLIP.

Coexistence and Pattern Formation in Bacterial Mixtures with Contact-Dependent Killing.

Multistrain microbial communities often exhibit complex spatial organization that emerges because of the interplay of various cooperative and competitive interaction mechanisms. One strong competitive mechanism is contact-dependent neighbor killing enabled by the type VI secretion system. It has been previously shown that contact-dependent killing can result in bistability of bacterial mixtures so that only one strain survives and displaces the other. However, it remains unclear whether stable coexistence is possible in such mixtures. Using a population dynamics model for two interacting bacterial strains, we found that coexistence can be made possible by the interplay of contact-dependent killing and long-range growth inhibition, leading to the formation of various cellular patterns. These patterns emerge in a much broader parameter range than that required for the linear Turing-like instability, suggesting this may be a robust mechanism for pattern formation.

Adaptation through proportion.

Adaptation is a ubiquitous feature in biological sensory and signaling networks. It has been suggested that adaptive systems may follow certain simple design principles across diverse organisms, cells and pathways. One class of networks that can achieve adaptation utilizes an incoherent feedforward control, in which two parallel signaling branches exert opposite but proportional effects on the output at steady state. In this paper, we generalize this adaptation mechanism by establishing a steady-state proportionality relationship among a subset of nodes in a network. Adaptation can be achieved by using any two nodes in the sub-network to respectively regulate the output node positively and negatively. We focus on enzyme networks and first identify basic regulation motifs consisting of two and three nodes that can be used to build small networks with proportional relationships. Larger proportional networks can then be constructed modularly similar to LEGOs. Our method provides a general framework to construct and analyze a class of proportional and/or adaptation networks with arbitrary size, flexibility and versatile functional features.

Erosion potential mapping using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and fractal dimension.

Assessing landform vulnerability to soil erosion is crucial for improved sustainable land use planning and management. In the Loess Plateau of the Northern Shaanxi Province of China, soil erosion has been reported as a major threat to sustainable land management and impacts on driving the socio-economic benefits that can be accrued from the landforms. Several studies especially on Erosion Potential Mapping (EPM) in the region have been conducted but the role of the fractal dimension (FD) of the terrain features has been limited. In this study, the paper assessed the role of fractal terrain features on the overall EPM. The Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) was adopted using 6 criteria, FD of the terrain, Land Use Land Cover, Slope, Elevation, Geomorphology and Flow Accumulation. These were developed in a Geographic Information System (GIS) framework. Eight Scales (8) were evaluated in order to select the best Scale with the lowest Consistency Ratio (CR) and the Minimum Relative Error (MRE). The results from this study shows that fractal features of terrain when integrated with the rest of the criteria produced a reliable EPM for the study area. The absence of the FD also gives unrealistic results for the EPM. The EPM with FD distribution recorded 29.4% for low erosion potential whereas EPM without FD recorded 46.7%. A larger portion of the Shaanxi province (70%) is found to be at a higher risk of erosion. Therefore, it is hoped that the findings from this research would further boost the integration of fractals into EPM in China and similar regions across the World. The study further recommends that sustainable soil management measures are put in place to reduce the erosion risk in the province to protect the natural ecological habitat.

Flower-like patterns in multi-species bacterial colonies.

Diverse interactions among species within bacterial colonies lead to intricate spatiotemporal dynamics, which can affect their growth and survival. Here, we describe the emergence of complex structures in a colony grown from mixtures of motile and non-motile bacterial species on a soft agar surface. Time-lapse imaging shows that non-motile bacteria 'hitchhike' on the motile bacteria as the latter migrate outward. The non-motile bacteria accumulate at the boundary of the colony and trigger an instability that leaves behind striking flower-like patterns. The mechanism of the front instability governing this pattern formation is elucidated by a mathematical model for the frictional motion of the colony interface, with friction depending on the local concentration of the non-motile species. A more elaborate two-dimensional phase-field model that explicitly accounts for the interplay between growth, mechanical stress from the motile species, and friction provided by the non-motile species, fully reproduces the observed flower-like patterns.

Communities of bacteria and other microbes live in every ecosystem on Earth, including in soil, in hydrothermal vents, on the surface of plants and in the human gut. They often attach to solid surfaces and form dense colonies called biofilms. Most biofilms found in nature are comprised of many different species of bacteria. How the bacteria interact shapes the internal structures of these communities. Many previous studies have focused on the molecules that bacteria use to relate to each other, for example, some bacteria exchange nutrients or release toxins that are harmful to their neighbors. However, it is less clear how direct physical contacts between bacteria affect the whole community. Escherichia coli is a rod-shaped bacterium that is a good swimmer, but has a hard time moving on solid surfaces. Therefore, when a droplet of liquid containing these bacteria is placed in a Petri dish containing a jelly-like substance called agar, the droplet barely expands over a 24-hour period. On the other hand, a droplet containing another rod-shaped bacterium known as Acinetobacter baylyi expands rapidly on agar because these bacteria are able to crawl using microscopic "legs" called pili. Here, Xiong et al. set out to investigate how a colony containing both E. coli and A. baylyi developed on a solid surface. The experiments showed that when a droplet of liquid containing both species was placed on agar, both species grew and spread rapidly, as if the E. coli hitchhiked on the highly motile A. baylyi cells. Furthermore, the growing colony developed a complex flower-like shape. Xiong et al. developed mathematical models that took into account how quickly each species generally grows, their ability to move, the friction between cells and the agar, and other physical properties. The models predicted that the E. coli cells that accumulate at the expanding boundary of the colony make the boundary unstable, leading to the flower-like patterns. Further analysis suggested that similar patterns may form in other situations when motile and non-motile species of bacteria are together. These findings may help us understand the origins of the complex structures observed in many naturally occurring communities of bacteria.

Evolution of the Physical and Social Spaces of 'Village Resettlement Communities' from the Production of Space Perspective: A Case Study of Qunyi Community in Kunshan.

Village resettlement communities (VRCs) are a special type of urban community that the government has promoted considerably during China's rapid urbanization. This study uses the theory of the production of space as a basis to explore the processes and mechanisms of the physical and social space evolution of VRCs through a case study of Qunyi Community, one of the largest VRCs in Kunshan. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were employed in this study. Results indicate that the coupling relationship between local government power and diversified capital is the fundamental reason that promotes the production of macrophysical space. Moreover, the economic and social relationships among residents promote the reproduction of microsocial space. Landless farmers are the most important spatial producers in the microsocial space. The individual needs and cultural differences of immigrant workers also have significant effects on microspatial production. Furthermore, the production and reproduction of the physical and social spaces, respectively, of VRCs deduce the adjustment relationship among the urbanization processes of land, population, and individuals. Results also indicate that the urbanization of individuals appears to lag behind the previous two processes. This study can provide a theoretical basis for the spatial renovation and management optimization of VRCs, as well as the promotion of a new type of "people-centered" urbanization.

Ownership reform and the changing manufacturing landscape in Chinese cities: The case of Wuxi.

Since the economic transition, manufacturing in China has undergone profound changes not only in number of enterprises, but also in ownership structure and intra-urban spatial distribution. Investigating the changing manufacturing landscape from the perspective of ownership structure is critical to a deep understanding of the changing role of market and government in re-shaping manufacturing location behavior. Through a case study of Wuxi, a city experiencing comprehensive ownership reform, this paper presents a detailed analysis of the intra-urban spatial shift of manufacturing, identifies the location discrepancies, and examines the underlying forces responsible for the geographical differentiations. Through zone- and district-based analysis, a distinctive trend of decentralization and suburbanization, as well as an uneven distribution of manufacturing, is unveiled. The results of Location Quotient analysis show that the distribution of manufacturing by ownership exhibits distinctive spatial patterns, which is characterized by a historically-based, market-led, and institutionally-created spatial variation. By employing Hot Spot analysis, the role of development zones in attracting manufacturing enterprises of different ownerships is established. Overall, the location behavior of the diversified manufacturing has been increasingly based on the forces of market since the land marketization began. A proactive role played by local governments has also guided the enterprise location decision through spatial planning and regulatory policies.

Adaptation with transcriptional regulation.

Biochemical adaptation is one of the basic functions that are widely implemented in biological systems for a variety of purposes such as signal sensing, stress response and homeostasis. The adaptation time scales span from milliseconds to days, involving different regulatory machineries in different processes. The adaptive networks with enzymatic regulation (ERNs) have been investigated in detail. But it remains unclear if and how other forms of regulation will impact the network topology and other features of the function. Here, we systematically studied three-node transcriptional regulatory networks (TRNs), with three different types of gene regulation logics. We found that the topologies of adaptive gene regulatory networks can still be grouped into two general classes: negative feedback loop (NFBL) and incoherent feed-forward loop (IFFL), but with some distinct topological features comparing to the enzymatic networks. Specifically, an auto-activation loop on the buffer node is necessary for the NFBL class. For IFFL class, the control node can be either a proportional node or an inversely-proportional node. Furthermore, the tunability of adaptive behavior differs between TRNs and ERNs. Our findings highlight the role of regulation forms in network topology, implementation and dynamics.

A stabilized microbial ecosystem of self-limiting bacteria using synthetic quorum-regulated lysis.

Microbial ecologists are increasingly turning to small, synthesized ecosystems1-5 as a reductionist tool to probe the complexity of native microbiomes6,7. Concurrently, synthetic biologists have gone from single-cell gene circuits8-11 to controlling whole populations using intercellular signalling12-16. The intersection of these fields is giving rise to new approaches in waste recycling17, industrial fermentation18, bioremediation19 and human health16,20. These applications share a common challenge7 well-known in classical ecology21,22-stability of an ecosystem cannot arise without mechanisms that prohibit the faster-growing species from eliminating the slower. Here, we combine orthogonal quorum-sensing systems and a population control circuit with diverse self-limiting growth dynamics to engineer two 'ortholysis' circuits capable of maintaining a stable co-culture of metabolically competitive Salmonella typhimurium strains in microfluidic devices. Although no successful co-cultures are observed in a two-strain ecology without synthetic population control, the 'ortholysis' design dramatically increases the co-culture rate from 0% to approximately 80%. Agent-based and deterministic modelling reveal that our system can be adjusted to yield different dynamics, including phase-shifted, antiphase or synchronized oscillations, as well as stable steady-state population densities. The 'ortholysis' approach establishes a paradigm for constructing synthetic ecologies by developing stable communities of competitive microorganisms without the need for engineered co-dependency.