Extraction du solvant d'un hydrogel par des gouttes de bact\'eries B. subtilis

Abstract

We observe that small drops of a Bacillus subtilis suspension deposited on agar strongly increase in volume while similar bacteria-void drops do not. By measuring the bacterial concentration within the drop at different heights, we show that the biomass increase due to the constant bacterial cell-division is too small to explain the drop bloating. Rather, the increased volume is caused by the presence of surfactin - a surfactant produced by the bacteria - which induces a water flow out of the environment by an osmotic capillary effect. The required concentration is very low (< 1 mM), four orders of magnitude smaller than the concentration of, for example, glucose to produce a similar effect. The ability of B. subtilis to extract water from its environment probably contributes to collective migration modes like mass swarming. It also gives rise to a new displacement mode independent of cellular motility: By combining the osmotic and wetting effects of the surfactant, B. subtilis can actively induce the sliding of the bacterial colony on substrates tilted by angles as small as 0.1 degrees.