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Colony Morphology

Colony Morphology

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Colony morphology refers to the study of the physical characteristics of microbial colonies, including their shape, size, color, texture, and elevation, as observed on solid growth media. This field is essential for the identification and classification of microorganisms in microbiology.
lightbulbAbout this topic
Colony morphology refers to the study of the physical characteristics of microbial colonies, including their shape, size, color, texture, and elevation, as observed on solid growth media. This field is essential for the identification and classification of microorganisms in microbiology.

Key research themes

1. How does genetic diversity within social insect colonies influence colony behavior and task performance?

This theme investigates the link between within-colony genetic diversity and key colony fitness-related behaviors including foraging efficiency, nest maintenance, and aggression in social insects. Understanding these relationships matters because genetic diversity may optimize division of labor, enhance colony efficiency, and affect inter-colony interactions and survival under ecological pressures.

Within-colony genetic diversity differentially affects foraging, nest maintenance, and aggression in two species of harvester ants
by Pierre-André Eyer and 
1 more
Inon Scharf

2018

Key finding: This study showed that in two harvester ant species (Messor arenarius and a newly described Messor sp.), genetic diversity correlates positively with foraging performance and nest maintenance in M. arenarius, but correlates... Read more
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Social enforcement depending on the stage of colony growth in an ant
by Hiroyuki Shimoji

2021, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Key finding: By empirically testing model predictions in the ant Diacamma sp., this work found that worker policing (enforcement of reproductive altruism) is strong during early colony growth (ergonomic stage) but relaxed during mature... Read more
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The First Workers of the Ant Camponotus obscuripes Are a Different Allometric Morph with Relatively Long Antennae to Communicate with Other Larger Colony Members
by Eisuke Hasegawa

2022, Psyche: A Journal of Entomology

Key finding: This research demonstrated that initial 'nanitic' workers in C. obscuripes have distinct allometric growth patterns, specifically showing relatively longer antennae, which may facilitate effective communication with larger... Read more
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2. How do bacterial and microbial colony morphologies emerge and what do they reveal about growth dynamics and environmental adaptation?

This research area focuses on the spatiotemporal development of microbial colonies, including patterns of colony shape formation, early morphological characteristics, and adaptations to environmental cues. These colony morphologies reflect underlying cellular processes, coordination, and resource optimization strategies and are important for understanding microbial survival, intercellular interactions, and potential diagnostic applications.

Early Developmental Program Shapes Colony Morphology in Bacteria
by Ganesh Babu Malli Mohan

2016

Key finding: Using confocal microscopy and laser ablations, this study revealed that B. subtilis colonies initiate as Y-shaped leading-cell chains whose extension determines future colony size and shape. Colony development proceeds... Read more
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Machine learning identification ofPseudomonas aeruginosastrains from colony image data
by Pedro Zacarias

2024

Key finding: Applying deep convolutional neural networks with data augmentation and transfer learning, the study achieved >94% accuracy in classifying P. aeruginosa strains based on colony morphology images. The work provides evidence... Read more
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Micro-colony observation: A rapid and simple approach to count bacterial colony forming units
by Kristi Kabyashree

2022

Key finding: The authors developed a microscopy-based method to enumerate bacterial colony-forming units by spotting small volumes of diluted culture and counting microcolonies hours after incubation. This approach drastically reduces... Read more
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3. What are the developmental and geometric principles governing organismal and colony morphology across microbial to multicellular taxa?

This theme explores principles that shape biological form from physical, developmental, and evolutionary perspectives. It covers symmetry patterns like five-fold morphology in biological systems, branching network morphologies in fungi, and colony size-shape trade-offs in microalgae. Understanding such principles elucidates the constraints and optimizations influencing colony and organismal architecture, with implications for biomechanics, ecology, and evolutionary developmental biology.

Spatial Organization of Five-Fold Morphology as a Source of Geometrical Constraint in Biology
by Gerardo Laguna-Sanchez

2022

Key finding: Through computational and statistical spatial organization analyses, the study established that five-fold morphological units display significantly greater spatial homogeneity than other symmetries (3-, 4-, 6-fold). This... Read more
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Prediction and experimental evidence of different growth phases of the<i>Podospora anserina</i>hyphal network
by Cécilia BOBEE

2024, bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)

Key finding: Combining experimental data on P. anserina hyphal networks with lattice-free binary tree modeling, this work identified distinct growth phases characterized by non-monotonic changes in network density. A stationary density... Read more
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Chain or sphere? Perspectives on colony shapes and sizes in microalgae
by Kam W Tang

2023, Journal of Plankton Research

Key finding: By contrasting chain-forming and spherical microalgal colonies, the authors demonstrated that chains increase size rapidly to deter specific grazers like ciliates but are vulnerable to others that manipulate colonies, while... Read more
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Related Topics

  • Cellular microbiology
  • Bacterial Multicellularity
  • Microbiology
  • Microbial Technology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Development of anti-cancer Drug
  • Drug Discovery
  • Biochemical Engineering
  • Biology

    • All papers in Colony Morphology

    Phenazines affect biofilm formation by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in similar ways at various scales
    by Lars Dietrich
    Fig. 1. Aphzl/2 (Aphz ) has increased swarming motility. Images of three swarming plates for each strain or condition were captured and exported to Adobe Photoshop and the agar surface covered by the swarms was quantified using Analysis Tools. I. Ramos et al. / Research in Microbiology 161 (2010) 187-191
    Fig. 2. Phenazines support development of structured biofilms in a continuous flow cell system. Representative images of 4-day-old biofilms of the wild type (A and phz1/2 mutant without (B) and with addition of 25 uM pyocyanin (C) to the nutrient flow. Images of similar positions in the flow cell were taken in triplicate To determine whether the morphological trends we observed in flow cells might translate to a larger scale, we grew colony biofilms of the wild type and Aphz//2. As we reported previously (Dietrich et al., 2008), wild type PAI4 formed smooth colonies that developed concentric ridges only after prolonged incubation (4 days; Fig. 3A), while Aphz//2 formed wrinkled colonies that grew vertically within 2 days. Surface coverage by Aphz1/2 colonies was increased by up to To measure the impact of phenazines on biofilm formation directly, we first used a flow cell system to grow wild type and Aphz1/2 biofilms. In this system, the wild type formed heterogeneous biofilms that after 4 days developed large and abundant microcolonies (Fig. 2A). Biofilms of Aphz1/2 were flatter and consisted of fewer and smaller aggregates scattered throughout the field of view (Fig. 2B). The morphology of 4- day-old biofilms was analyzed using COMSTAT (Heydorn et al., 2000). A fixed threshold value and connected volume
    Fig. 3. Phenazines modulate colony biofilm morphology. (A, B) P. aeruginosa PA14 wild type and Aphz1/2 cultures were spotted onto 1% agar plates (containing 1% tryptone, 40 g/ml Congo Red and 20 j1g/ml Coomassie Blue) and incubated at 20 °C for 7 days in the presence of 0.2 mM PCA, 0.2 mM pyocyanin (PYO), or in the absence of supplements. Each day, colonies from three independent experiments were scanned and their surface coverage was determined. Representative images of colonies at days 2, 4 and 6 are shown (A; scale bar is | cm). The data in (B) show the average surface coverage and standard deviation for the three independent experiments. (C) Phenazine titrations. Colonies were grown as above, supplemented with 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 or 0.4 mM PCA or PYO. Surface coverage of colonies from three independent experiments was determined after incubation at 20 °C for 7 days. Bars indicate the standard deviation.
    Quantitative analysis of 4-day old biofilms formed by the wild type and a phenazine-defective mutant. Analysis was conducted using COMSTAT. Images from similar positions in the flow cell were acquired for all conditions in triplicate. * 25 uM pyocyanin (PYO) was added to the medium from the beginning of the experiment. > Minimum microcolony size at the substratum was set at 10 pm’. Table |
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    Genotypic and phenotypic characteristics associated with biofilm formation in Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. isolated from ulam in Terengganu
    by Anis Athirah

    2020, Food Research

    Nowadays, the foodborne outbreaks associated with fresh produces, including ulam, are increasing worldwide. The biofilm formation or bacterial attachment to plant surface is the initial step towards the contamination in fresh produce. The... more
    Colony morphology on Congo red-supplemented agar was used to detect the formation of fimbriae in colonies. LB agar without NaCl consists of 10 g/L tryptone (Merck, Germany), 6 g/L technical agar (Oxoid, UK), and 5 g/L of yeast extract (HiMedia Laboratories Pvt. Ltd, India) was supplemented with 0.04 g/L Congo red (Sigma Aldrich Inc., Germany). Then, | wL of the overnight culture was inoculated into congo red agar and incubated at 25°C for 5 days (Abdullah et al., 2017). Their colony morphologies were observed at day 3 and 5. The morphotypes observed were red, dry and rough (rdar) and smooth and white morphotype (saw). Rdar morphotypes able to form multicellular communities and their colonies were dark red colour, with a rough surface and undulated margins. While saw morphotypes showed Colony morphology on Congo red-supplemented
    Kacang Botol (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus)
    3.1 Colony morphology test
    Table 4. Screening of biofilm formers of Escherichia coli Table 5. Screening of biofilm formers of Salmonella spp.
    Figure 3. The Biofilm Formation of £. coli strains. The Biofilm formation was calculated by using formula; Biofilm Formation (BF) BF = AB — CW; AB, stained attached bacteria; CW, stained control wells. *Value more than 0.30 indicate strong biofilm.
    Figure 4. The Biofilm Formation of Salmonella spp. strains. The Biofilm formation was calculated by using formula; Biofilm Formation (BF) BF = AB — CW; AB, stained attached bacteria; CW, stained control wells. *Value more than 0.30 indicate strong biofilm.
    Figure 5. Representative agarose gel analysis of PCR assay targeting csgA gene in Escherichia coli (EC) and Salmonella spp. (S) isolates. Lane 1 and 5: 100 bp DNA ladder, Lane 2: Negative control, Lane 3: Sample 14/EC, Lane 4: Sample 1/S. Table 6. Correlation between colony morphotypes and biofilm production of E. coli
    Table 1. Prevalence of Congo Red morphotypes of Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. Congo red supplemented agar used to visualize curli and cellulose production in the colonies. Rdar colonies isolate producing both curli fimbriae and cellulose as an extracellular matrix component. Table 2 and 3 show rdar morphotype was expressed by 18 (78.3%) isolates of E. coli (SMDS2, SMDS4, WMDS, SMKGI1, SMKG2, SMKG3, SMKG4, SMKB2, SMKB4, SMKBS, SMKB8, SMK2, SMK3, SMU2, SMT4, WMSK4, WMSK7 and WMPP2) and rdar morphotypes absent in all Salmonella enterica. Verma et al. (2018) reported that rdar morphotype characterized by both expressions of curli fimbriae and cellulose production was identified in 28 isolates (38.3%) of E. coli isolated from fresh vegetables and fruits samples.
    Table 3. Gram stain, colony morphology and biofilm formation on the air-liquid interface of Salmonella spp. Table 2. Gram stain, colony morphology and biofilm formation on the air-liquid interface of Escherichia coli
    *Morphotypes on Congo Red agar (rdar) red, dry and rough, intermediate and (saw) smooth and white; "Phenotype on air-liquid interface: (-) the complete absence of pellicle — lack of ability to produce biofilm; (+) formation of very thin pellicle — weak biofilm producer; (++) formation of thin pellicle — moderate biofilm producer, (+++) formation of strong and thick pellicle — strong biofilm producer.
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