Onset of quorum sensing and exopolysaccharide production in single cells within growing microcolonies

The aim of this experiment is to understand colony behavior and other phenomena such as quorum sensing. The latter enables bacteria to restrict the expression of specific genes to the high cell densities at which the resulting phenotypes will be most beneficial. In these datasets, mVenus (yellow) is driven by cell division, meaning that any cell which is yellow has either recently undergone cell division, or is about to, or both. mCherry (red) represents QS signal production. This is the most heterogeneous channel. Cerulean (blue) represents exopolysaccharide production, which can only occur in the presence of sufficient QS signal, the AHLs (N-Acyl homoserine lactones). Technologies employed to create the data: Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence, Phase contrast microscopy, Bioengineering, Microfluidics. Schlueter J-P, McIntosh M, Hattab G, Nattkemper TW, Becker A. (2015): Phase Contrast and Fluorescence Bacterial Time-Lapse Microscopy Image Data. Bielefeld University. doi:10.4119/unibi/2777409. Charoenpanich, P., Soto, M. J., Becker, A., & McIntosh, M. (2015). Quorum sensing restrains growth and is rapidly inactivated during domestication of Sinorhizobium meliloti. Environmental microbiology reports, 7(2), 373-382.