Electrical signaling in bacterial biofilms

细菌生物膜中的电信号 Gürol Süel（P.I.），Lev Tsimring（Co-I.）和安德鲁·穆格勒（Co-I.） 总结 了解细菌之间的交流是一个基本的生物学问题， 公共卫生这个问题可能在被称为生物膜的细菌群落中更为相关。 单个细菌如何在这样的集体组织的社区中进行交流，以协调它们的 行为是生物学中一个长期存在的问题。我们最近发现了一种新型的细菌交流方式 基于枯草芽孢杆菌生物膜中离子通道介导的细胞间电信号传导的机制。这 我们最近的技术创新使我们的发现成为可能，理想地使我们能够解决基本问题， 关于细菌如何在生物膜中协调其行为的长期问题。多方面的需要， 问题的规模性质，我们提出的具体目标旨在跨越空间和时间 尺度：1）细胞密度和异质性如何影响生物膜内的远程通信？我们 提出高细胞密度和细胞间电活动的异质性促进有效信号 在生物膜内传播。2)是什么决定了生物膜群落的组成和分布？我们 提出远程电信号在吸引或排斥单个细菌方面发挥着关键作用 从生物膜中分离出来3)生物膜是否作为一个独立的功能单位在存在 邻近的生物膜我们认为，多个相邻的生物膜可以成为耦合通过长距离 电子信号转化成一个超级集群，可以作为一个功能单元。这些问题涉及现象 在从单个细胞到生物膜组的长度范围内操作， 秒到小时。因此，多尺度定量延时显微镜是解决 这些问题。重要的是，由此产生的定量时空测量是理想的， 约束特定问题的数学模型，并确定电信号在协调中的作用 生物膜中的细菌。因此，这里产生的定量时空测量也将用于 计算生物学社区的广泛兴趣。 !

Electrical signaling in bacterial biofilms Gürol Süel (P.I.), Lev Tsimring (Co-I.) and Andrew Mugler (Co-I.) Summary Understanding communication among bacteria is a fundamental biological problem with critical implications for public health. Nowhere is this problem perhaps more relevant than in bacterial communities known as biofilms. How individual bacteria communicate within such collectively organized communities to coordinate their behavior is a long-standing question in biology. We recently discovered a new type of bacterial communication mechanism based on ion channel mediated electrical cell-to-cell signaling in Bacillus subtilis biofilms. This discovery made possible by our recent technical innovations, ideally positions us to tackle the fundamental and long-standing question regarding how bacteria coordinate their behavior in biofilms. Necessitated by the multi- scale nature of the problem, the specific aims we propose are designed to bridge across spatial and temporal scales: 1) How does cell density and heterogeneity influence long-range communication within the biofilm? We propose that high cell density and cell-to-cell heterogeneity in electrical activity promotes efficient signal transmission within the biofilm. 2) What governs the composition and dispersion of biofilm communities? We propose that long-range electrical signaling plays a critical role in attracting individual bacteria to, or repelling them from the biofilm. 3) Does a biofilm operate as an independent functional unit in the presence of neighboring biofilms? We propose that multiple neighboring biofilms can become coupled through long-range electrical signaling into a super-cluster that can act as a functional unit. These questions involve phenomena operating over length scales ranging from individual cells to groups of biofilms, and timescales ranging from seconds to hours. Therefore, multi-scale quantitative time-lapse microscopy is the essential tool to address these questions. Importantly, the resulting quantitative spatio-temporal measurements are ideal to inform and constrain problem specific mathematical models and determine the role of electrical signaling in coordinating bacteria in biofilms. The quantitative spatio-temporal measurements to be generated here will thus also serve the broad interests of the computational biology community. !