Genetically engineered control of phenotypic structure in microbial colonies

Abstract

Rapid advances in cellular engineering^1,2 have positioned synthetic biology to address therapeutic^3,4 and industrial⁵ problems, but a substantial obstacle is the myriad of unanticipated cellular responses in heterogeneous real-world environments such as the gut^6,7, solid tumours^8,9, bioreactors¹⁰ or soil¹¹. Complex interactions between the environment and cells often arise through non-uniform nutrient availability, which generates bidirectional coupling as cells both adjust to and modify their local environment through phenotypic differentiation^12,13. Although synthetic spatial gene expression patterns^{14,<a data-track="click" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-test="citation-ref" title="Grant, P. K. et al. Orthogonal intercellular signaling for programmed spatial behavior. Mol. Syst. Biol....}