Cell morphology drives spatial patterning in microbial communities

TLDR

Microbial communities contain cells of different shapes, yet little is known about how these shapes affect community biology. The study aims to develop a computational model to investigate how microbial shape influences community dynamics. The model simulates communities with varying cell shapes to assess spatial patterning and its impact on survival and reproduction. The model predicts that cell shape strongly influences positioning, survival, and reproduction, with rod‑shaped cells colonizing the base and edges while round cells dominate the upper surface—a pattern confirmed in *E.

Abstract

Significance Microbial communities contain cells of different shapes, and yet we know little about how these shapes affect community biology. We have developed a computational model to study the effects of microbial shape in communities. Our model predicts that shape will have strong effects on cells’ positioning, and, consequently, their survival and reproduction. Rod-shaped cells are better at colonizing the base of the community and its expanding edges, whereas round cells dominate the upper surface. We show that the same patterns occur in colonies of Escherichia coli , using strains with different shapes. Our work suggests that cell shape is a major determinant of patterning and evolutionary fitness within microbial communities.