Chu Pan, Zhu Jingwen, Ma Zhixin, Fu Xiongfei
State Key Laboratory for Quantitative Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Apr 8;122(14):e2424112122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2424112122. Epub 2025 Apr 4.
Microbial colony development hinges upon a myriad of factors, including mechanical, biochemical, and environmental niches, which collectively shape spatial patterns governed by intricate gene regulatory networks. The inherent complexity of this phenomenon necessitates innovative approaches to comprehend and compare the mechanisms driving pattern formation. Here, we unveil the multistability of bacterial colony patterns, where bacterial colony patterns can stabilize into multiple distinct types including ring-like patterns and sector-like patterns on hard agar, orchestrated by a simple synthetic bistable switch. Utilizing quantitative imaging and spatially resolved transcriptome approaches, we explore the deterministic process of a ring-like colony pattern formation from a single cell. This process is primarily driven by bifurcation events programmed by the gene regulatory network and microenvironmental cues. Additionally, we observe a noise-induced process amplified by the founder effect, leading to patterns of symmetry-break during range expansion. The degrees of asymmetry are profoundly influenced by the initial conditions of single progenitor cells during the nascent stages of colony development. These findings underscore how the process of range expansion enables individual cells, exposed to a uniform growth-promoting environment, to exhibit inherent capabilities in generating emergent, self-organized behavior.
微生物菌落的发育取决于众多因素，包括机械、生化和环境生态位，这些因素共同塑造了由复杂基因调控网络控制的空间模式。这种现象固有的复杂性需要创新方法来理解和比较驱动模式形成的机制。在这里，我们揭示了细菌菌落模式的多稳定性，即细菌菌落在硬琼脂上可以稳定形成多种不同类型，包括环状模式和扇形模式，这是由一个简单的合成双稳态开关精心编排的。利用定量成像和空间分辨转录组方法，我们探索了从单个细胞形成环状菌落模式的确定性过程。这个过程主要由基因调控网络和微环境线索编程的分岔事件驱动。此外，我们观察到一个由奠基者效应放大的噪声诱导过程，导致在范围扩展期间的对称破缺模式。不对称程度在菌落发育初期受到单个祖细胞初始条件的深刻影响。这些发现强调了范围扩展过程如何使暴露于均匀生长促进环境的单个细胞展现出产生涌现的、自组织行为的内在能力。
