A single bacterial spore's starting position dictates the color and light-reflecting properties of a massive living film.
April 24, 2026
Original Paper
Shaping nematic order in bacterial films with single-cell resolution patterning
arXiv · 2604.21655
The Takeaway
Living films made of billions of bacteria can now be programmed to display specific patterns and colors by manipulating individual cells at the start. Microscopic spores are carefully patterned to determine how the resulting film will polarize light as it grows. This process transforms a biological colony into a functional optical material with structural coloration similar to butterfly wings. The final macroscopic structure is entirely dependent on the high resolution arrangement of its original founders. This level of biological control could lead to sustainable, self-assembling displays and sensors grown from living organisms.
From the abstract
Bacterial colonies composed of elongated cells form active nematic fluids that spontaneously self-organise into ordered domains of aligned cells and exhibit self-generated chaotic flows powered by cell growth. While their dynamics have attracted significant attention, the role of initial conditions remains largely unexplored due to a lack of precise patterning methods. Here, we harness the precision of capillary assembly to pattern Bacillus subtilis endospores into arrays with controlled positio