CLS Seminar
报告题目：Collective oscillations in a microbial community
报告人：Dr. Jintao LIU
Division of Biological Sciences, University of California San Diego, USA
时间：11月24日（周四）下午1:00pm-2:00pm
地点：金光生科大楼 Rm.411
报告摘要： 
Cells that reside within a community can cooperate and also compete with each other for resources. It remains unclear how these opposing interactions are resolved at the population level. Here we investigated such an internal conflict within a Bacillus subtilis biofilm community: Cells at the biofilm periphery not only protect cells at biofilm interior from external attack (cooperation), but also starve them through nutrient consumption (competition). We discovered that this conflict is resolved through the emergence of a long-range metabolic co-dependence between peripheral and interior cells. Specifically, these two subpopulations promote and restrict each other’s metabolic activity, resulting in periodic halting of biofilm expansion and increase of nutrient availability for the protected interior cells. Metabolic co-dependence thus enables biofilms to alternate between the opposing demands of growth and protection, and allows biofilms to regenerate themselves upon chemical attacks. We further confirmed these findings using detailed mathematical modeling of the underlying metabolic pathways. These findings reveal the spatial and temporal self-organization of metabolic states among cells that increases the collective fitness, and also suggest new strategies for microbial control. 
欢迎各位老师同学积极参加！