Dynamically induced spatial segregation in multispecies bacterial bioconvection
Abstract Active matter, from motile bacteria to animals, can exhibit striking collective and coherent behavior. Despite significant advances in understanding the behavior of homogeneous systems, little is known about the self-organization and dynamics of heterogeneous active matter, such as complex...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56244-8 |
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| author | Oscar Gallardo-Navarro Rinat Arbel-Goren Elias August Gabriela Olmedo-Alvarez Joel Stavans |
| author_facet | Oscar Gallardo-Navarro Rinat Arbel-Goren Elias August Gabriela Olmedo-Alvarez Joel Stavans |
| author_sort | Oscar Gallardo-Navarro |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Active matter, from motile bacteria to animals, can exhibit striking collective and coherent behavior. Despite significant advances in understanding the behavior of homogeneous systems, little is known about the self-organization and dynamics of heterogeneous active matter, such as complex and diverse bacterial communities. Under oxygen gradients, many bacterial species swim towards air-liquid interfaces in auto-organized, directional bioconvective flows, whose spatial scales exceed the cell size by orders of magnitude. Here we show that multispecies bacterial suspensions undergoing oxytactic-driven bioconvection exhibit dynamically driven spatial segregation, despite the enhanced mixing of bioconvective flows, and the fact that these species coexist in their natural habitat. Segregation is observed as patterns of spatially interlocked domains, with local dominance of one of the constituent species in the suspension. Our findings suggest that segregation mechanisms are driven by species-specific motile behaviors under conditions of hydrodynamic flow, rather than biochemical repulsion. Thus, species with different motile characteristics in the same ecological context can enhance their access to limiting resources. This work provides novel insights on the role of heterogeneity in active matter, as well as on the dynamics of complex microbial communities, their spatial organization and their collective behavior. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a7d0dd4db4444e07b89db678abbcf5c9 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-a7d0dd4db4444e07b89db678abbcf5c92025-01-26T12:40:51ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-01-0116111310.1038/s41467-025-56244-8Dynamically induced spatial segregation in multispecies bacterial bioconvectionOscar Gallardo-Navarro0Rinat Arbel-Goren1Elias August2Gabriela Olmedo-Alvarez3Joel Stavans4Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of ScienceDepartment of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of ScienceDepartment of Engineering, Reykjavik UniversityDepartamento de Ingeniería Genética, CINVESTAV Unidad IrapuatoDepartment of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of ScienceAbstract Active matter, from motile bacteria to animals, can exhibit striking collective and coherent behavior. Despite significant advances in understanding the behavior of homogeneous systems, little is known about the self-organization and dynamics of heterogeneous active matter, such as complex and diverse bacterial communities. Under oxygen gradients, many bacterial species swim towards air-liquid interfaces in auto-organized, directional bioconvective flows, whose spatial scales exceed the cell size by orders of magnitude. Here we show that multispecies bacterial suspensions undergoing oxytactic-driven bioconvection exhibit dynamically driven spatial segregation, despite the enhanced mixing of bioconvective flows, and the fact that these species coexist in their natural habitat. Segregation is observed as patterns of spatially interlocked domains, with local dominance of one of the constituent species in the suspension. Our findings suggest that segregation mechanisms are driven by species-specific motile behaviors under conditions of hydrodynamic flow, rather than biochemical repulsion. Thus, species with different motile characteristics in the same ecological context can enhance their access to limiting resources. This work provides novel insights on the role of heterogeneity in active matter, as well as on the dynamics of complex microbial communities, their spatial organization and their collective behavior.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56244-8 |
| spellingShingle | Oscar Gallardo-Navarro Rinat Arbel-Goren Elias August Gabriela Olmedo-Alvarez Joel Stavans Dynamically induced spatial segregation in multispecies bacterial bioconvection Nature Communications |
| title | Dynamically induced spatial segregation in multispecies bacterial bioconvection |
| title_full | Dynamically induced spatial segregation in multispecies bacterial bioconvection |
| title_fullStr | Dynamically induced spatial segregation in multispecies bacterial bioconvection |
| title_full_unstemmed | Dynamically induced spatial segregation in multispecies bacterial bioconvection |
| title_short | Dynamically induced spatial segregation in multispecies bacterial bioconvection |
| title_sort | dynamically induced spatial segregation in multispecies bacterial bioconvection |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56244-8 |
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