ArticleMicrobiology spectrum2022
Type IV Pilus Shapes a 'Bubble-Burst' Pattern Opposing Spatial Intermixing of Two Interacting Bacterial Populations.
Article in Microbiology spectrum, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Major type IV pilin ofmBio · 2026Article
- Substrate toxicity drives successive range expansions opposing spatial intermixing in cross-feeding consortia.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Synthetic microbial consortia based on quorum-sensing for disease therapy.Bioresources and bioprocessing · 2025Review
- Disentangling the feedback loops driving spatial patterning in microbial communities.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Review
- Spatial population dynamics of bacterial colonies with social antibiotic resistance.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Uptake and leakage rates differentially shape community arrangement and composition of microbial consortia.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Deciphering microbial spatial organization: insights from synthetic and engineered communities.ISME communications · 2025Review
- Microbial Biofilms: Features of Formation and Potential for Use in Bioelectrochemical Devices.Biosensors · 2024Review
- Microfluidic approaches in microbial ecology.Lab on a chip · 2024Review
- Effectiveness of Pseudomonas aeruginosa type VI secretion system relies on toxin potency and type IV pili-dependent interaction.PLoS pathogens · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Microbes are social organisms that commonly live in sessile biofilms. Spatial patterns of populations within biofilms can be important determinants of community-level properties. Spatial intermixing emerging from microbial interaction is one of the best-studied characteristics of spatial patterns. The specific levels of spatial intermixing critically contribute to how the dynamics and functioning of such communities are governed. However, the precise factors that determine spatial patterns and intermixing remain unclear. Here, we investigated the spatial patterning and intermixing of an engineered synthetic consortium composed of two mutualistic Pseudomonas stutzeri strains that degrade salicylate via metabolic cross-feeding. We found that the consortium self-organizes across space to form a previously unreported spatial pattern (here referred to as a 'bubble-burst' pattern) that exhibits a low level of intermixing. Interestingly, when the genes encoding type IV pili were deleted from both strains, a highly intermixed spatial pattern developed and increased the productivity of the entire community. The intermixed pattern was maintained in a robust manner across a wide range of initial ratios between the two strains. Our findings show that the type IV pilus plays a role in mitigating spatial intermixing of different populations in surface-attached microbial communities, with consequences for governing community-level properties. These insights provide tangible clues for the engineering of synthetic microbial systems that perform highly in spatially structured environments.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.