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1: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Nov 14;103(46):17290-5. Epub 2006 Nov 7.
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Bacterial metapopulations in nanofabricated landscapes.

Keymer JE, Galajda P, Muldoon C, Park S, Austin RH.

Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544-1014, USA.

We have constructed a linear array of coupled, microscale patches of habitat. When bacteria are inoculated into this habitat landscape, a metapopulation emerges. Local bacterial populations in each patch coexist and weakly couple with neighbor populations in nearby patches. These spatially distributed bacterial populations interact through local extinction and colonization processes. We have further built heterogeneous habitat landscapes to study the adaptive dynamics of the bacterial metapopulations. By patterning habitat differences across the landscape, our device physically implements an adaptive landscape. In landscapes with higher niche diversity, we observe rapid adaptation to large-scale, low-quality (high-stress) areas. Our results illustrate the potential lying at the interface between nanoscale biophysics and landscape evolutionary ecology.

Publication Types:
PMID: 17090676 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PMCID: PMC1635019