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SUMMARY:To stick or to swim: phenotypic plasticity in biofilms and its rol
 e in evolutionary rescue - Diana Fusco\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20231123T130000Z
DTEND:20231123T140000Z
UID:TALK205816@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Marco Vona
DESCRIPTION:Biofilms\, which are bacterial communities colonizing interfac
 es\, often display incredible phenotypic heterogeneity\, even in monoclona
 l populations. Two among the many possible behaviours observed across cell
 s are motility and matrix production. In B. subtilis\,  the two gene expre
 ssion pathways that lead to these phenotypes are mutually exclusive\, so t
 hat a cell can either be in one state or the other. While the role of matr
 ix production during biofilm development is very well studied and known to
  be necessary for the emergence of "wrinkles" in many biofilms grown on ha
 rd substrate\, the role of motility in these conditions is much less clear
 .\n\nWhile analyzing the spatio-temporal gene expression pattern during bi
 ofilm development\, we found the presence of "motility pulses" that reprod
 ucibly occur along the biofilm wrinkles\, raising the question of whether 
 the liquid channels underneath the wrinkles could be used by cells within 
 the centre of the biofilm to escape to the outside. By developing a simple
  yet effective setup that allows us to change the environment experienced 
 by the biofilms without disturbing the biofilm structure\, we confirmed no
 t only that escape is possible\, but that cell motility is a necessary con
 dition. Importantly\, we show that this mechanism\, which requires coordin
 ation between motility and matrix production\, can be used by resistant ce
 lls to escape the core of a biofilm and rescue the population upon antibio
 tic treatment.
LOCATION:MR15\,  Centre for Mathematical Sciences\, Wilberforce Road\, Cam
 bridge
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