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J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 78 (2009) 074005 (6 pages)  |Previous Article| |Next Article|  |Table of Contents|
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Pattern Formation of Bacterial Colonies by Escherichia coli

Rie Tokita, Takaki Katoh, Yusuke Maeda1, Jun-ichi Wakita, Masaki Sano1, Tohey Matsuyama2, and Mitsugu Matsushita

Department of Physics, Chuo University, Kasuga, Bunkyo, Tokyo 112-8551
1Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033
2Advanced Course of Food and Nutrition Science, Niigata Women's College, Niigata 950-8680

(Received January 22, 2009; Accepted April 10, 2009; Published June 25, 2009)

We have studied the morphological diversity and change in bacterial colonies, using the bacterial species Escherichia coli, as a function of both agar concentration Ca and nutrient concentration Cn. We observed various colony patterns, classified them into four types by pattern characteristics and established a morphological diagram by dividing it into four regions. They are regions A [diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA)-like], B (Eden-like), C (concentric-ring), and D (fluid-spreading). In particular, we have observed a concentric-ring colony growth for E. coli. We focused on the periodic growth in region C and obtained the following results: (i) A colony grows cyclically with the growing front repeating an advance (migration phase) and a momentary rest (consolidation phase) alternately. (ii) The growth width L and the bulge width W in one cycle decrease asymptotically to certain values, when Ca is increased. (iii) L does not depend on Cn, while W is an increasing function of Cn. Plausible mechanisms are proposed to explain the experimental results, by comparing them with those obtained for other bacterial species such as Proteus mirabilis and Bacillus subtilis. ©2009 The Physical Society of Japan

KEYWORDS: bacterial colony, Escherichia coli, concentric-ring pattern, fluid spreading pattern, cell motility
URL: http://jpsj.ipap.jp/link?JPSJ/78/074005/
DOI: 10.1143/JPSJ.78.074005


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