Swimming-Induced Mechanoresponsive Material Stigmergy

Boundaries govern the hydrodynamics of swimming microbes, both affecting individual and collective motion. However, in vivo circumstances are vastly more perplexing because biological surroundings are adaptive.

While previous work has productively considered complications to individual swimmer dynamics, it has neglected mechanoreciprocity, the bi-directional relationship between cells and their material surroundings.

This research program proposes that the collective dynamics exhibited by swimming bacteria play a presently overlooked role in restructuring their material surroundings as active “ecosystem engineers.” This proposal seeks to uncover whether the active hydrodynamic stresses due to the collective motion of many motile microbes can be sufficient to mechanically induce structural changes to their material environments.

Crucially, this will, in turn, modify swimmer dynamics, creating a reciprocal relationship between the microbes and their surroundings.

Thus, this research program seeks to establish the new research direction of Swimming-Induced Mechanoresponsive Material Stigmergy (SIMMS).

Through a series of coarse-grained particle-based numerical simulations of many swimming microbes and their pliable surrounding, this proposal will try to find evidence of mechanoreciprocity due to active hydrodynamic stresses generated by collective bacterial flows.

Activity-driven restructuring of responsive micro-environments would not only represent an embodiment of biophysical multi-scale self-organised complexity, but also open pathways for regulating bacteria dynamics to aid biodegradation, hinder contamination and combat medical infections.