Popular science fiction is no stranger to escape-pod scenarios, typically featuring characters who narrowly avoid their demise by jettisoning from a spaceship—think R2-D2 and C-3PO shooting away from a rebel spaceship in the opening of Star Wars: A New Hope. Biologists at the University of California San Diego have found that communities of bacteria feature a similar ejection capability.
Groups of bacteria known as biofilms thrive on surfaces all around us. These microscopic clusters are abundant in aquatic environments, from the slick surface of lake rocks to the slimy buildup in plumbing pipes. Biofilms also inhabit select parts of our bodies, including our skin and the surfaces of our teeth.
UC San Diego scientists from Professor Gürol Süel's laboratory in the School of Biological Sciences documented the biofilm ejection phenomenon for the first time while studying a bacterium known as hay bacillus (Bacillus subtilis).
Previous views held that biofilms facing death simply dissolved and faded away. Adding to the researchers' surprise, they reviewed similar ejection capabilities across the animal kingdom and found that the only other organisms that feature similar mechanisms are jellyfish.
A hidden rupture mechanism
"We found that at the end of their life cycles, these bacterial biofilms forcefully ejected specific cells from the community," said Süel, a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology, of the study, published in Nature Microbiology. "The biofilm senses that it is in trouble so it shoots cells out of the community like an escape pod."
Survival through expelled cells
The researchers say the ejection capability allows a biofilm facing nutrient starvation or other threats to ensure that the community can survive by releasing mobile cells that have the potential to swim away and colonize a new location.
"The biofilm knows it is going to die, so it ejects some of its cells so they can survive and live to fight another day," said Süel.
Source: Phys.org
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