Active Spaghetti: Collective Organization in Cyanobacteria

Phys Rev Lett. 2023 Oct 13;131(15):158303. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.158303.

Abstract

Filamentous cyanobacteria can show fascinating examples of nonequilibrium self-organization, which, however, are not well understood from a physical perspective. We investigate the motility and collective organization of colonies of these simple multicellular lifeforms. As their area density increases, linear chains of cells gliding on a substrate show a transition from an isotropic distribution to bundles of filaments arranged in a reticulate pattern. Based on our experimental observations of individual behavior and pairwise interactions, we introduce a nonreciprocal model accounting for the filaments' large aspect ratio, fluctuations in curvature, motility, and nematic interactions. This minimal model of active filaments recapitulates the observations, and rationalizes the appearance of a characteristic length scale in the system, based on the Péclet number of the cyanobacteria filaments.

MeSH terms

  • Cyanobacteria*
  • Cytoskeleton*