Bacterial Behavior in Confined Spaces

Hang Du; Weili Xu; Zhizhou Zhang; Xiaojun Han

doi:10.3389/fcell.2021.629820

Bacterial Behavior in Confined Spaces

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2021 Mar 18:9:629820. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.629820. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Hang Du^{1

2}, Weili Xu¹, Zhizhou Zhang², Xiaojun Han¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
² Center for Marine Antifouling Engineering Technology of Shandong Province, School of Marine Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Weihai, China.

Abstract

In confined spaces, bacteria exhibit unexpected cellular behaviors that are related to the biogeochemical cycle and human health. Types of confined spaces include lipid vesicles, polymer vesicles, emulsion droplets, microfluidic chips, and various laboratory-made chambers. This mini-review summarizes the behaviors of living bacteria in these confined spaces, including (a) growth and proliferation, (b) cell communication, and (c) motion. Future trends and challenges are also discussed in this paper.

Keywords: bacterial behavior; communication; confined space; growth and proliferation; motion.

Publication types

Review