Collaborative Research: Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Interacting Bacterial Communities in Compact Colonies

合作研究：紧密菌落中相互作用的细菌群落的时空动态

• 批准号: 2029480
• 负责人: Jiajia Dong
• 金额: $ 22.39万
• 依托单位: Bucknell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-15 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2029480&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Spatiotemporal; Dynamics; Interacting

Bacteria are the simplest and most abundant living organisms on our planet, and often exist as complex microbial communities in otherwise homogeneous environment. This project proposes to address the question of how bacterial communities survive, expand, and maintain their diversity. The main goals of this project are to: (1) uncover rules that generate and maintain the complex biochemical and mechanical environment inside growing bacterial colonies, which serve as the fountain that breeds both genetic and ecological diversity; and (2) produce a set of well-tested mathematical models and computational tools for investigating the interplay between activities of individual cells and the collective bacterial behaviors at the community level. The PIs will engage in a number of activities aimed at development of the next generation workforce trained at the intersection of mathematical and biological sciences including the development of a new undergraduate major in mathematical biology at UCSD, development of courses in mathematical biology at UCSD and Bucknell and the training of undergraduate and graduate students in this interdisciplinary area at all 3 collaborating institutions. A series of public lectures on mathematical biology will also be arranged in California State University - Long Beach, a large public university with 43% Hispanic/Latino students.This project will use a combination of experimentation and multiscale modeling to address the spatiotemporal dynamics of growing compact bacterial colonies on the air-agar interface. Non-extracellular matrix producing bacteria will be used as a simplified experimental system to address the interrelationship of mechanical properties and metabolism on bacterial grown. Cross feeding between multiple bacterial species will be used to explore the impact of bacterial diversity on colony growth. A discrete-continuum 3D simulation model will be developed in this project that will be able to integrate mechanical and metabolic interactions as well as its couple treatment of individual cells and with a continuum description of environmental factors. The results of this project should shed light on the rules that govern bacterial grown and diversity. In addition, the proposed research provides many opportunities and challenges in new mathematical studies on topics ranging from nonlinear partial differential equations, interface dynamics, multiscale modeling, and high performance scientific computing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

细菌是我们地球上最简单，最丰富的生物体，通常是在原本均匀环境中作为复杂的微生物群落而存在。该项目建议解决细菌群落如何生存，扩展和维持其多样性的问题。该项目的主要目标是：（1）揭示生成和维持生长细菌菌落内复杂的生化和机械环境的规则，这些菌落是繁殖遗传和生态多样性的喷泉； （2）生产一组经过良好测试的数学模型和计算工具，用于研究单个细胞活动与社区层面的集体细菌行为之间的相互作用。 PI将开展许多活动，旨在开发下一代劳动力，在数学和生物科学的交集中进行了培训，包括在UCSD上开发新的数学生物学本科专业，开发UCSD和Bucknell的数学生物学课程，并在该领域的研究生和研究生级培训。一系列关于数学生物学的公开讲座还将在加利福尼亚州立大学安排 - 长滩，一所大型公立大学，拥有43％的西班牙裔/拉丁裔学生。该项目将结合实验和多尺度建模的组合来解决空气 - 阿加加尔互动界面上不断增长的紧凑型细菌群体的时空动态。 非跟踪细胞基质产生细菌将被用作简化的实验系统，以解决机械性能和新陈代谢在细菌种植上的相互关系。多种细菌物种之间的交叉进食将用于探索细菌多样性对菌落生长的影响。该项目将开发一个离散的3D模拟模型，该模型将能够整合机械和代谢的相互作用，以及其对单个细胞的夫妇处理，并与环境因素的连续描述。该项目的结果应阐明控制细菌成长和多样性的规则。 此外，拟议的研究在新的数学研究中提供了许多机遇和挑战，这些研究的主题包括非线性部分微分方程，界面动力学，多尺度建模和高性能科学计算。这项奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过该基金会的知识分子优点和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务。