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

细菌是地球上最简单和最丰富的生物体，通常以复杂的微生物群落形式存在于均匀的环境中。该项目旨在解决细菌群落如何生存，扩展和保持其多样性的问题。该项目的主要目标是：（1）揭示生长细菌菌落内复杂的生物化学和机械环境的产生和维持规则，这些规则是孕育遗传和生态多样性的源泉;（2）生产一套良好的测试的数学模型和计算工具，用于调查单个细胞的活动和集体细菌行为之间的相互作用，社区一级。PI将从事一些旨在培养数学和生物科学交叉领域的下一代劳动力的活动，包括在UCSD开发新的数学生物学本科专业，在UCSD和Bucknell开发数学生物学课程，以及在所有3个合作机构培养跨学科领域的本科生和研究生。一系列关于数学生物学的公开讲座也将安排在加州州立大学-长滩，一个拥有43%西班牙裔/拉丁裔学生的大型公立大学。该项目将使用实验和多尺度建模的组合来解决空气-琼脂界面上生长紧凑的细菌菌落的时空动力学。 非细胞外基质产生细菌将被用作一个简化的实验系统，以解决细菌生长的机械性能和代谢的相互关系。将使用多个细菌物种之间的交叉饲喂来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-连续三维仿真模型，该模型将能够集成机械和代谢相互作用以及单个细胞的耦合处理，并具有环境因素的连续描述。这个项目的结果应该揭示了控制细菌生长和多样性的规则。 此外，拟议的研究提供了许多机会和挑战，在新的数学研究的主题，从非线性偏微分方程，界面动力学，多尺度建模，高性能的科学计算。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

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.