Turing patterns are self-organizing systems that can form spots, stripes, or labyrinths. Proposed examples in tissue organization include zebrafish pigmentation, digit spacing, and many others. The theory of Turing patterns in biology has been debated because of their stringent fine-tuning requirements, where patterns only occur within a small subset of parameters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMechanical forces shape living matter from the macro- to the microscale as both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells are force wielders and sensors. However, whereas such forces have been used to control mechanically dependent behaviors in mammalian cells, we lack the same level of understanding in bacteria. Surface adhesion, the initial stages of biofilm formation and surface biofouling, is a mechanically dependent process, which makes it an ideal target for mechano-control.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBacteria can organise themselves into communities in the forms of biofilms and swarms. Through chemical and physical interactions between cells, these communities exhibit emergent properties that individual cells alone do not have. While bacterial communities have been mainly studied in the context of biochemistry and molecular biology, recent years have seen rapid advancements in the biophysical understanding of emergent phenomena through physical interactions in biofilms and swarms.
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