Engineered cell-to-cell signalling within growing bacterial cellulose pellicles

摘要: Bacterial cellulose is a strong and flexible biomaterial produced at high yields by Acetobacter species has applications in healthcare, biotechnology electronics. Naturally, bacterial grows as large unstructured polymer network around the bacteria that produce it, tools to enable these respond different locations are required grow more complex structured materials. Here, we introduce engineered cell-to-cell communication into cellulose-producing strain of Komagataeibacter rhaeticus cells detect their proximity within growing material trigger differential gene expression response. Using synthetic biology tools, engineer Sender Receiver strains K. diffusible signalling molecule, acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL). We demonstrate can occur both between pellicles use this boundary detection experiment, where spliced joined sense reveal original boundary. This work sets basis for an important step forward pattern formation living