Publications

@article{corte_morphogenesis_2024,

title = {Morphogenesis of bacterial colonies in polymeric environments},

author = {Sebastian Gonzalez La Corte and Corey A. Stevens and Gerardo Cárcamo-Oyarce and Katharina Ribbeck and Ned S. Wingreen and Sujit S. Datta},

url = {https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adq7797},

doi = {10.1126/sciadv.adq7797},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-17},

urldate = {2024-04-22},

journal = {Science Advances},

volume = {11},

number = {3},

issue = {3},

pages = {eadq7797},

publisher = {bioRxiv},

abstract = {Many bacteria live in polymeric fluids, such as mucus, environmental polysaccharides, and extracellular polymers in biofilms. However, lab studies typically focus on cells in polymer-free fluids. Here, we show that interactions with polymers shape a fundamental feature of bacterial life—how they proliferate in space in multicellular colonies. Using experiments, we find that when polymer is sufficiently concentrated, cells generically and reversibly form large serpentine “cables” as they proliferate. By combining experiments with biophysical theory and simulations, we demonstrate that this distinctive form of colony morphogenesis arises from an interplay between polymer-induced entropic attraction between neighboring cells and their hindered ability to diffusely separate from each other in a viscous polymer solution. Our work thus reveals a pivotal role of polymers in sculpting proliferating bacterial colonies, with implications for how they interact with hosts and with the natural environment, and uncovers quantitative principles governing colony morphogenesis in such complex environments.},

note = {Pages: 2024.04.18.590088 

Section: New Results},

keywords = {microbiome, Mucus},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{howard_biochemical_2021,

title = {Biochemical and rheological analysis of human colonic culture mucus reveals similarity to gut mucus},

author = {R. Logan Howard and Matthew Markovetz and Yuli Wang and Camille Ehre and Shehzad Z. Sheikh and Nancy L. Allbritton and David B. Hill},

url = {https://www.cell.com/biophysj/abstract/S0006-3495(21)00883-3},

doi = {10.1016/j.bpj.2021.10.024},

issn = {0006-3495},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-12-07},

urldate = {2021-12-07},

journal = {Biophysical Journal},

volume = {120},

number = {23},

pages = {5384–5394},

note = {Publisher: Elsevier},

keywords = {Mucus},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{wang_building_2019,

title = {Building a Thick Mucus Hydrogel Layer to Improve the Physiological Relevance of In Vitro Primary Colonic Epithelial Models},

author = {Y. Wang and R. Kim and C. E. Sims and N. L. Allbritton},

doi = {10.1016/j.jcmgh.2019.07.009},

issn = {2352-345X},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

journal = {Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology},

volume = {8},

number = {4},

pages = {653–655.e5},

keywords = {Cell Culture Techniques, Colon, Humans, Hydrogels, Intestinal Mucosa, Mucus},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}