Studies of internal structure of multicellular microbial community by two-photon confocal microscopy.
Abstract
Production of Ato1p-GFP starts synchronously in surface layer of cells of uniform thickness over the whole microcolony surface (of about 50 µm in the 3-days old colonies). The outermost single cell layer covering the whole microcolony protects the colony population against environmental impacts like a “skin”.
It is formed by living cells tightly joined via thick cell walls, probably by their surface proteins.