Explosive dispersal of non-motile microbes through metabolic buoyancy

TL;DR

Non-motile microbes can explosively disperse in fluids by generating buoyancy-driven convection through metabolic waste, creating a self-organized physical transport mechanism that enhances spatial expansion.

Contribution

This study reveals a novel dispersal mechanism where microbial metabolism induces Rayleigh-Bénard convection, enabling non-motile microbes to self-organize a physical transport system.

Findings

Microbial colonies induce buoyancy-driven convection via metabolic waste.

The dispersal follows accelerating power-law kinetics.

Fractal patterns emerge from a flow-focusing instability.

Abstract

For non-motile microorganisms, spatial expansion in quiescent fluids is presumed to be limited by diffusion. We report that microbial colonies can explosively circumvent this constraint through a self-amplifying physical process. As non-motile yeast and bacteria metabolize dense nutrients into lighter waste within their fluid environment, they generate buoyancy-driven Rayleigh-B\'enard convection, an ubiquitous fluid-dynamical phenomenon that organizes material on scales from chemical reactors to planetary atmospheres. This robust, self-generated flow fragments and disperses cellular aggregates, which seed new growth sites, enhancing total metabolic activity and further strengthening the convective flow in an autocatalytic cycle. The resulting expansion follows accelerating power-law kinetics, quantitatively captured by a physical theory linking metabolic flux to flow velocity, and produces fractal patterns through a flow-focusing instability we term Circulation-Driven Aggregation, the hydrodynamic analogue of Diffusion-Limited Aggregation. This `metabolic fireworks' mechanism establishes a canonical instance of proliferating active matter, where cellular metabolic activity self-organizes a physical transport engine--a living Rayleigh-B\'enard convection--providing a fundamental, physics-based dispersal strategy.