A study on twitching motility dynamics in Ralstonia solanacearum microcolonies by live imaging

Abstract

Ralstonia solanacearum is a rod‐shaped phytopathogenic bacterium that causes lethal wilt disease in many plants. On solid agar growth medium, in the early hour of the growth of the bacterial colony, the type IV pili‐mediated twitching motility, which is important for its virulence and biofilm formation, is prominently observed under the microscope. In this study, we have done a detailed observation of twitching motility in R. solanacearum colony. In the beginning, twitching motility in the microcolonies was observed as a density‐dependent phenomenon that influences the shape of the microcolonies. No such phenomenon was observed in Escherichia coli, where twitching motility is absent. In the early phase of colony growth, twitching motility exhibited by the cells at the peripheral region of the colony was more prominent than the cells toward the center of the colony. Using time‐lapse photography and merging the obtained photomicrographs into a video, twitching motility was observed as an intermittent phenomenon that progresses in layers in all directions as finger‐like projections at the peripheral region of a bacterial colony. Each layer of bacteria twitches on top of the other and produces a multilayered film‐like appearance. We found that the duration between the emergence of each layer diminishes progressively as the colony becomes older. This study on twitching motility demonstrates distinctly heterogeneity among the cells within a colony regarding their dynamics and the influence of microcolonies on each other regarding their morphology.