Centers and Institutes
Published February 14, 2020 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Structured silicon for revealing transient and integrated signal transductions in microbial systems

Creators

  • 1. University of Chicago
  • 2. Korea University
  • 3. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • 4. Northwestern University
  • 5. University of Illinois at Chicago

Description

Bacterial response to transient physical stress is critical to their homeostasis and survival in the dynamic natural environment. Because of the lack of biophysical tools capable of delivering precise and localized physical perturbations to a bacterial community, the underlying mechanism of microbial signal transduction has remained unexplored. Here, we developed multiscale and structured silicon (Si) materials as nongenetic optical transducers capable of modulating the activities of both single bacterial cells and biofilms at high spatiotemporal resolution. Upon optical stimulation, we capture a previously unidentified form of rapid, photothermal gradient–dependent, intercellular calcium signaling within the biofilm. We also found an unexpected coupling between calcium dynamics and biofilm mechanics, which could be of importance for biofilm resistance. Our results suggest that functional integration of Si materials and bacteria, and associated control of signal transduction, may lead to hybrid living matter toward future synthetic biology and adaptable materials.

Data availability

All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or Supplementary Materials. Additional data related to this paper can be requested from the authors.

Files

sciadv.aay2760.pdf

Files (13.7 MB)

Name Size Download all
md5:9d8b16dee82025c19c02a22f868a9e26
8.1 MB Preview Download
Article
md5:70f5dd62270b6f4aca8667645eada3df
5.6 MB Preview Download

Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1126/sciadv.aay2760
Other
oai:uchicago.tind.io:10961

Funding

National Science Foundation
DMR-1420709
Office of Naval Research
N000141612530
Office of Naval Research
N000141612958
National Research Foundation of Korea
2018R1A3A3000666

UChicago Information

Division(s)
Physical Sciences Division, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering
Department(s)
Chemistry
Center(s) or Institute(s)
Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, James Franck Institute