Biological Structures
Microbial Structures - Dawn Y. Sumner and Megan Murphy, Bekah Shepard, Vijay Natarajan, Gunther Weber, David Wiley, Nina Amenta, James Crutchfield, Bernd Hamann, Stefan Wuertz

Large numbers of microbes of different species self-organize into complex communities as each individual responds to its immediate environment and neighboring microbes. Under specific environmental conditions, these responses produce complex macroscopic structures that can be preserved in the rock record. Some structures are consistent with either abiotic or biotic processes, whereas others may be uniquely biological. Our objective is to characterize the spectrum of structures that are produced by microbial motility and evaluate whether some or all of these structures are uniquely biological. We approach this question by characterizing the growth morphology of modern microbial systems, imaging ancient microbialites, modeling the morphology of surfaces generated by microbial motility, and comparing 3D morphological results using new modeling, visualization, and feature extraction tools. Results will provide insights into the organizational structure of microbial communities, improved interpretation of the behavior of ancient microbial communities, and a framework for identifying uniquely biological structures in the ancient rock record of earth and other planets.

http://www.geology.ucdavis.edu/~sumner/Research/Research.html

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