Optogenetic patterning generates multi-strain biofilms with spatially distributed antibiotic resistance

Spatial organization of microbes in biofilms enables crucial community function such as division of labor. However, quantitative understanding of such emergent community properties remains limited due to a scarcity of tools for patterning heterogeneous biofilms. Here we develop a synthetic optogenetic toolkit ‘Multipattern Biofilm Lithography’ for rational engineering and orthogonal patterning of multi-strain biofilms, inspired by successive adhesion and phenotypic differentiation in natural biofilms. We apply this toolkit to profile the growth dynamics of heterogeneous biofilm communities, and observe the emergence of spatially modulated commensal relationships due to shared antibiotic protection against the beta-lactam ampicillin. Supported by biophysical modeling, these results yield in-vivo measurements of key parameters, e.g., molecular beta-lactamase production per cell and length scale of antibiotic zone of protection. Our toolbox and associated findings provide quantitative insights into the spatial organization and distributed antibiotic protection within biofilms, with direct implications for future biofilm research and engineering.