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Bacteria in polymers create cable-like structures that grow into living gels

Date: 20.1.2025 

Scientists at Caltech and Princeton University have discovered that bacterial cells growing in a solution of polymers, such as mucus, form long cables that buckle and twist on each other, building a kind of "living Jell-O."

Kredit: Sebastian Gonzalez La Corte et al./Princeton University/Caltech.The finding could be particularly important to the study and treatment of diseases such as cystic fibrosis, in which the mucus that lines the lungs becomes more concentrated, often causing bacterial infections that take hold in that mucus to become life threatening.

This discovery could also have implications in studies of polymer-secreting conglomerations of bacteria known as biofilms – the slippery goo on river rocks, for example – and in industrial applications where they can cause equipment malfunctions and health hazards.

"We've discovered that when many bacteria grow in fluids containing spaghetti-like molecules called polymers, such as mucus in the lungs, they form cable-like structures that intertwine like living gels," says Sujit Datta, a professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering, and biophysics at Caltech and corresponding author of the new paper.

"And, interestingly, there are similarities between the physics of how these structures form and the microscopic physics underlying many nonliving gels, like Purell or Jell-O."

The team found that the cables continue to elongate and grow as long as the cells have the nutrients they need, eventually creating chains that are thousands of cells long.

Image source: Sebastian Gonzalez La Corte et al./Princeton University/Caltech.

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