We wondered if by adding even less glucose to the media, we could amplify any small diffusion limitations that were present. But we observed the opposite! In limiting amounts of glucose (and many other carbon sources), synthetic flocs grew faster.
We hypothesize that the reversibility of FLO1 adhesion, which allows cells to exchange places, improves mass transport to the aggregate center, limiting a large source of either costs or benefits. In this way, synthetic flocs could be a powerful chassis for multicellular designs.
