Hello Steemit world,
I was cleaning up the lab for the holidays when I found a contaminated LB agar plate (poorly poured at that) growing an interesting looking lawn of bacteria on the surface. The media had 100ug/mL of chloramphenicol, so it should have been enough antibiotic to keep any unwanted critters off the dish — but for this one it didn't. This implied whatever was growing had some antibiotic resistance, which for some bacteria arises naturally or is innate.
"So much for that plate...also nice pouring job..."
This was the only contaminated dish with this microbe of the 20 or so which were poured. The plate was kept closed with the lid in the biological safety cabinet at room temperature the entire time since pouring, so contamination must have arisen somehow from handling, or at the time of pouring.
At first glance I had just noticed the contaminated plate, but not the intricate colony morphology on it. Closer inspection revealed that these bacterial growths had distinct branch points and spiraling arms that spread from an initial central colony. These growths resembled snowflakes, or how frost forms branching patterns as water crystallizes; but there was also rotation within the arms and branch points.
"Wait, what is THAT?"
(The only camera that was at my disposal was on my phone, so I tried to take the best photos I could — please excuse the resolution and focus.)
Zooming in closer...
If I have correctly identified this microbe it is Paenibacillus dendritiformis, which has complex population dynamics and social behavior that governs the motility and branching as it grows. It is known to be multi-drug resistant, which explains the growth on LB agar with 100ug/mL of chloramphenicol. Interestingly, this critter employs such complex intercellular chemical communication that it can behave as a socially intelligent multicellular community, despite P. dendritiformis being a single-celled organism. [I know it's deemed lazy and sloppy to reference Wikipedia, but given it's the holidays I'm feeling pretty lazy; so, I'll reference it anyways because the primary literature is cited within and the page checks out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paenibacillus_dendritiformis]
Given the complex colony architecture and morphology there are numerous false-colored images of this bacterium across the web. Some show the branching and adventurous growth in detail, and others are more psychedelic. If you Google image search the microbe name you will see what I mean. Here is an example:
"FOR THE HIVE!"
If you are familiar with microbiology I hope you have enjoyed this posting and found it informative. If you are not familiar with this subject I similarly hope it was enjoyable and has piqued your interest into an often unseen world that can govern health, disease, medicine, and of course beer and wine.
Constructive feedback is always welcome to improve the quality of content; after all I'm a scientist, not a writer!
Cheers!