Team:Bordeaux/Biology

Our project aims at reproducing multicellular-like behavior in the bacteria Escherichia coli. The idea came from the patterns visible on some animals, like the “pseudo-eyes” on a butterfly wing. As well, we thought about the formation of stripes on tigers or zebra. Such patterns are created thanks to a very precise genetic regulation. So what we want to do here is modeling a regulation mechanism existing in eukaryotes in a simple organism. The bacteria will share the same DNA but should be able to display a different phenotype depending on the signal received by its neighbors. The phenotype here will be the expression of three different colors. The bacteria should be able to communicate between them. A light signal is used as the first inducer of our mechanism. Then, the first cells activated by the input signal send a signal to its neighbor that will react to it by changing its color, and sending another message to the next cell. This will allow us to draw different patterns on the petri dish.