Science article on " how micro-organisms get strip patterns"

Sequential Establishment of Stripe Patterns in an Expanding Cell Population

Chenli Liu¹,*, 

Xiongfei Fu²,*, 

Lizhong Liu¹, 

Xiaojing Ren³, 

Carlos K.L. Chau¹, 

Sihong Li², 

Lu Xiang¹, 

Hualing Zeng²,

Guanhua Chen³, 

Lei-Han Tang⁴, 

Peter Lenz⁵, 

Xiaodong Cui², 

Wei Huang¹,²,†, 

Terence Hwa⁶,†, 

Jian-Dong Huang¹,†

Science 14 October 2011: 
Vol. 334 no. 6053 pp. 238-241 
DOI: 10.1126/science.1209042

ABSTRACT

Periodic stripe patterns are ubiquitous in living organisms, yet the underlying developmental processes are complex and difficult to disentangle. We describe a synthetic genetic circuit that couples cell density and motility. This system enabled programmed Escherichia coli cells to form periodic stripes of high and low cell densities sequentially and autonomously. Theoretical and experimental analyses reveal that the spatial structure arises from a recurrent aggregation process at the front of the continuously expanding cell population. The number of stripes formed could be tuned by modulating the basal expression of a single gene. The results establish motility control as a simple route to establishing recurrent structures without requiring an extrinsic pacemaker.