Fig. 6. Intra-colony channels play a functional role in nutrient acquisition and transport to the centre of bacterial biofilms.

A deconvolved image of a JM105-pJM058 macro-colony biofilm grown on M9 minimal medium with L-arabinose as the sole carbon source. This arabinose biosensor expresses GFP only in the presence of L-arabinose. GFP emission intensity was higher in cells, which line the intra-colony channels compared with cells elsewhere within the biofilm, which shows that the channel structures have a higher concentration of L-arabinose compared with elsewhere within the biofilm. This provides evidence of a functional role in nutrient acquisition and transport for the intra-colony channel system.