Bacteria organized in communities create patterns of development identified with multicellular organisms such as plants and animals, a condition that gives them a complexity not noticed until now. Also, they remember and communicate.
A new study developed at the University of California, San Diego, in the United States, has discovered a series of remarkable characteristics exhibited by groups of bacteria that live together, in communities known as biofilms. Is it so organized in elaborate patterns, a trait that had previously only been associated with higher-level organisms like plants and animals.
Are biofilmsfound in sewer pipes, kitchen counters and even on the surface of our teeth, they use sophisticated systems to communicate with each other, as well as having a strong memory capacity. The research, led by biologist Gürol Süel, was recently published in the journal Cell and was carried out in collaboration with scientists from Stanford University and Pompeu Fabra University, in Spain.
Video: Bacterial cell communities manage to organize themselves into surprisingly sophisticated segments. Credits: Suel Lab @ UCSD / YouTube.
Genetic patterns
According to a press release, bacterial communities they achieve these properties through a specific genetic mechanism, which reveals an incredible similarity to the way in which plant and animal species develop. Apparently, the discovery could lead to a new conception about the historical emergence of complex cell patterns.
In this sense, the results suggest that the concept of cellular pattern during development is much older than previously thought. Everything indicates that the ability of cells to segment in space and time did not arise only with plants and vertebrates, but can be traced over a billion years and found in much simpler organisms.
The communities of bacteria organized in biofilms present different types of cells. However, these disparate cells had not previously been thought to have the ability to organize into regulated patterns. In the new study, the scientists developed experiments and a mathematical model that revealed the genetic basis for behaviors linked to a species of “Understanding & rdquor; weather, as well as the ordering of available resources.
Orderly growth
For example, when the biofilm of bacteria begins to expand and consume the nutrients present in the environment, a “Molecular clock & rdquor; it freezes within each cell at a certain time and position. From then on, a pattern made up of repeated segments of different types of cells evidences this situation and creates an alert, something that can be seen in complex organisms such as plants, flies and even in humans.
The researchers verified that the variety Bacillus subtilis, a bacterium found in the soil, creates concentric rings reminiscent of the development “fringes” created by a segmentation clock in plant species, as happens for example in trees. But the breakthrough was the identification of the related genetic circuit, which makes clear the existence of temporal patterns and growth organization.
In other words, biofilms have the ability to generate concentric rings of gene expression patterns in the entire community of bacteria. These findings reveal a “Genetic Clock & rdquor; that organizes cellular differentiation in space and time, seriously questioning the paradigm that indicates that such modeling mechanisms are exclusive to plant and animal development.
Reference
A segmentation clock patterns cellular differentiation in a bacterial biofilm. Gürol M. Süel et al. Cell (2022). DOI: https: //doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.12.001
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