Bacterial Pattern Formation:Experimental and Theoretical Study of Sibling Rivalry and Extracellular Matrix Release

Sarkar, Trinish (2016) Bacterial Pattern Formation:Experimental and Theoretical Study of Sibling Rivalry and Extracellular Matrix Release. Masters thesis, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata.

PDF (MS dissertation of Trinish Sarkar (11MS014)) Sarkar_Trinish_MS_Thesis.pdf - Submitted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (12MB)

Abstract

Self-organized behavior is observed in plethora of natural phenomena, which leads to different kind of pattern formation.It includes passive "non-living" systems like formation snowflakes as well as active systems like the growth of bacterial colony.The aim of the study is to investigate the factors involved in this self-organized behavior in growth and inhibition of bacterial colony. Sibling rivalry is the phenomenon where two neighboring colonies of same strains(hence the term sibling) suppress each other’s growth. Extracellular matrix is a broad term to describe materials released by bacteria cells to thrive on solid or semi-solid surface. In this thesis we have studied these two phenomena both experimentally and theoretically and tried to understand them in the light of self-organization. We have tried to find out the underlying reason of sibling rivalry in a soil isolated bacteria and particularly focused on the role of local nutrient deficiency . We have also investigated the role of ECM in colony morphology and pattern formation using another soil-isolated bacteria.

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