While the biofilm growth mode conveys notable thriving advantages to bacterial populations, the mechanisms of biofilm formation are still strongly debated. Here, we investigate the remarkable spontaneous formation of regular spatial patterns during the growth of an Escherichia coli biofilm. These patterns reported here appear with non-motile bacteria, which excludes both chemotactic origins and other motility-based ones. We demonstrate that a minimal physical model based on phase separation describes them well. To confirm the predictive capacity of our model, we tune the cell-cell and cell-surface interactions using cells expressing different surface appendages. We further explain how F pilus-bearing cells enroll their wild type kindred, poorly piliated, into their typical pattern when mixed together. This work supports the hypothesis that purely physicochemical processes, such as the interplay of cell-cell and cell-surface interactions, can drive the emergence of a highly organized spatial structure that is potentially decisive for community fate and for biological functions.

中文翻译：

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大肠杆菌生物膜中时空模式的形成可以通过简单的物理能量平衡来解释。

虽然生物膜的生长方式向细菌群体传递了显着的繁荣优势，但生物膜形成的机制仍受到激烈的争论。在这里，我们研究了大肠杆菌生物膜生长过程中常规空间模式的显着自发形成。此处报道的这些模式与非运动性细菌一起出现，这些细菌不包括趋化性起源和其他基于运动性的细菌。我们证明了基于相分离的最小物理模型可以很好地描述它们。为了确认我们模型的预测能力，我们使用表达不同表面附件的细胞调节细胞-细胞和细胞-表面的相互作用。我们进一步解释了含F菌毛的细胞在混合在一起时如何使它们的野生型，毛糙程度差的毛虫进入其典型模式。