2026-10-12 スイス連邦工科大学ローザンヌ校（EPFL）
2026 EPFL/Laure Le Blanc – CC-BY-SA 4.0
＜関連情報＞
- https://actu.epfl.ch/news/bacteria-use-collisions-to-navigate-crowded-envi-3/
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-026-02505-1
細菌は細胞間の衝突を機械感覚で感知することにより、集団行動を制御する Bacteria regulate collective behaviour by mechanosensing cell–cell collisions
Laure Le Blanc, Giona Cattaneo, Nathel Heraud, Einollah Sarikhani, Dhivya Pushpa Meganathan, Chia-Ni Tsai, Anum Tahir, Marco J. Kühn, Zeinab Jahed, Sangwoo Kim & Alexandre Persat
Nature Microbiology Published:06 October 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-026-02505-1
Abstract
Dense bacterial populations often navigate complex and heterogeneous environments using collective behaviours including group motility. Whether local interactions within a population can regulate collective order is unclear. Here we show using live imaging, single-cell tracking and simulations that Pseudomonas aeruginosa regulates collective order by mechanosensing cell–cell collisions, enabling adaptive surface exploration. Collision-induced reversals suppress collective cell alignment in dense bacterial populations. While a non-reversing mutant remains locked in cohesive near-linear motion regardless of density, wild-type cells adapt to local crowding, transitioning from isotropic motion in crowds to unidirectional exploration at the colony front. With increasing density, collisions generate information that feeds back on single-cell motility to regulate collective order, providing a navigational advantage. This advantage extends to spatially structured environments, such as micromazes, where collision-induced reversals prevent cells from becoming trapped at physical boundaries. These findings reveal that bacterial collective organization is not merely an emergent consequence of physical interactions, but a feedback-regulated state.
