RRC ID 70532
著者 Xue H, Kurokawa M, Ying BW.
タイトル Correlation between the spatial distribution and colony size was common for monogenetic bacteria in laboratory conditions.
ジャーナル BMC Microbiol
Abstract Background Geographically separated population growth of microbes is a common phenomenon in microbial ecology. Colonies are representative of the morphological characteristics of this structured population growth. Pattern formation by single colonies has been intensively studied, whereas the spatial distribution of colonies is poorly investigated. Results The present study describes a first trial to address the questions of whether and how the spatial distribution of colonies determines the final colony size using the model microorganism Escherichia coli, colonies of which can be grown under well-controlled laboratory conditions. A computational tool for image processing was developed to evaluate colony density, colony size and size variation, and the Voronoi diagram was applied for spatial analysis of colonies with identical space resources. A positive correlation between the final colony size and the Voronoi area was commonly identified, independent of genomic and nutritional differences, which disturbed the colony size and size variation. Conclusions This novel finding of a universal correlation between the spatial distribution and colony size not only indicated the fair distribution of spatial resources for monogenetic colonies growing with identical space resources but also indicated that the initial localization of the microbial colonies decided by chance determined the fate of the subsequent population growth. This study provides a valuable example for quantitative analysis of the complex microbial ecosystems by means of experimental ecology.
巻・号 21(1)
ページ 114
公開日 2021-4-15
DOI 10.1186/s12866-021-02180-8
PII 10.1186/s12866-021-02180-8
PMID 33858359
PMC PMC8051089
MeSH Demography Escherichia coli / growth & development* Laboratories
IF 2.989
リソース情報
原核生物(大腸菌)