Growing Bacteria Line Up Single-File, Then Buckle in Liquid Crystals

Researchers have discovered that bacteria behave differently when growing in liquid crystal fluids, which are environments where molecules are aligned in a single direction. As Caltech News reports, instead of forming thick cables, the bacteria create single-cell-wide chains that eventually buckle into tight, localized kinks. This behavior is driven by the bending elasticity of the fluid, which forces the bacteria to align and then snap under the pressure of their own growth. The team believes understanding these structural patterns could eventually help in developing engineered living materials or explain how bacteria colonize crowded host tissues.

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