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Biofilm Growth Under Elastic Confinement

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

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Authors

Fortune, George 
Oliveira, Nuno 

Abstract

Bacteria often form surface-bound communities, embedded in a self-produced extracellular matrix, called biofilms. Quantitative studies of their growth have typically focused on unconfined expansion above solid or semi-solid surfaces, leading to exponential radial growth. This geometry does not accurately reflect the natural or biomedical contexts in which biofilms grow in confined spaces. Here we consider one of the simplest confined geometries: a biofilm growing laterally in the space between a solid surface and an overlying elastic sheet. A poroelastic framework is utilised to derive the radial growth rate of the biofilm; it reveals an additional self-similar expansion regime, governed by the Poisson's ratio of the matrix, leading to a finite maximum radius, consistent with our experimental observations of growing Bacillus subtilis biofilms confined by PDMS.

Description

Keywords

Bacillus subtilis, Biofilms, Extracellular Matrix

Journal Title

Physical Review Letters

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0031-9007
1079-7114

Volume Title

Publisher

American Physical Society
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/M017982/1)
BBSRC (BB/T009098/1)