A growing body of evidence points to the importance of microcolonies in the dissemination of bacteria, yet there is a dearth of tools for systematically assessing the behavior of cells within such communities. New strategies for landscaping three-dimensional culture environments on microscopic scales may have a critical role in revealing how bacteria orchestrate antibiotic resistance and other social behaviors within small, dense aggregates.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (5R01AI075068 to M.W.; 5R03AI081216 to J.B.S.) and the Welch Foundation (grant F-1331 to J.B.S.).
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Connell, J., Whiteley, M. & Shear, J. Sociomicrobiology in engineered landscapes. Nat Chem Biol 8, 10–13 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.749
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.749
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