Scientists want to build a computer of bacteria

A biofilm is a colony of bacteria that cooperate to provide nutrition and to protect themselves from external threats.

Now, a research group in American San Diego has shown that bacteria in a biofilm have the ability to store memories.

The same group has previously shown that the bacteria can communicate with electrical signals, in the same way that the neurons in our brains do. The research is presented in the latest issue of Cell Systems.

 - It is very interesting that such simple organisms have physiological mechanisms that you previously could not even imagine, says Ute Römling, professor of microbiology at the Karolinska Institute.

For many years, Ute Römling has been researching how the bacteria in a biofilm cooperate with each other.

- It was previously believed that bacteria only respond to what is happening directly in their environment, she says.

The new research has studied how the small soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis behaves.

To be able to see what is happening in the biofilm, the researchers added a substance that made the bacteria fluoresce - thus luminescent if you lit them with a special light.

The researchers used light to stamp a pattern into the biofilm and the result was that each individual bacterium could store the memory for a number of hours.

- If you study these bacteria more closely, we can also understand the principles that govern our own memory, says Ute Römling.

The group behind the discovery is led by molecular biologist Gurol Suel at the University of California, San Diego. Now he wants to construct a simple computer of the bacteria.

- A prerequisite for being able to perform complicated calculations is the ability to store memories. Therefore, we believe it may be possible to utilize interactions between bacteria to perform calculations, he writes in an email to SVT.