ORCID
Alison E. Patteson: 0000-0002-4004-1734
Document Type
Article
Date
Winter 12-18-2018
Language
English
Funder(s)
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Funding ID
NSF-CBET-1437482
Acknowledgements
We thank Edward Steager, Elizabeth Hunter, Somayeh Fahardi, Mark Goulian, Prashant Purohit, Julia Yeomans, and James Sethna for fruitful discussions. This work was supported by NSF-CBET-1437482. A.E.P was supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Official Citation
Patteson, A.E., Gopinath, A. & Arratia, P.E. The propagation of active-passive interfaces in bacterial swarms. Nat Commun 9, 5373 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07781-y
Disciplines
Physics
Description/Abstract
Propagating interfaces are ubiquitous in nature, underlying instabilities and pattern formation in biology and material science. Physical principles governing interface growth are well understood in passive settings; however, our understanding of interfaces in active systems is still in its infancy. Here, we study the evolution of an active-passive interface using a model active matter system, bacterial swarms. We use ultra-violet light exposure to create compact domains of passive bacteria within Serratia marcescens swarms, thereby creating interfaces separating motile and immotile cells. Post-exposure, the boundary re-shapes and erodes due to self-emergent collective flows. We demonstrate that the active-passive boundary acts as a diffuse interface with mechanical properties set by the flow. Intriguingly, interfacial velocity couples to local swarm speed and interface curvature, raising the possibility that an active analogue to classic Gibbs-Thomson-Stefan conditions may control this boundary propagation.
Recommended Citation
Patteson, A.E., Gopinath, A. & Arratia, P.E. The propagation of active-passive interfaces in bacterial swarms. Nat Commun 9, 5373 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07781-y
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
