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An important aspect of bacteria living in confined and spatially structured communities is that the environment significantly increases the amount of physical interaction between cells. Advances in microfluidics and quantitative microscopy now provide powerful methods for probing the effects of these interactions. These techniques have revealed that mechanical interactions may often be a critical driver of the evolution and ecological dynamics of bacterial populations. Here, we provide an overview of recent findings related to bacterial competition within confined and spatially structured habitats.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1091\/mbc.e25-12-0594","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,20]],"date-time":"2026-05-20T19:01:28Z","timestamp":1779303688000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Bacterial ecology in confined and spatially structured in vitro habitats"],"prefix":"10.1091","volume":"37","author":[{"given":"Faisal","family":"Halabeya","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada, L5L 1C6"},{"name":"Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 1A7"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ing Xhu","family":"Lim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada, L5L 1C6"},{"name":"Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 1A7"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2515-4025","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Joshua N.","family":"Milstein","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada, L5L 1C6"},{"name":"Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 1A7"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1076","reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pbio.3001406"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1099390"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/s12918-015-0188-5"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41396-021-00921-1"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/mmi.15203"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_7_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1099\/mic.0.001489"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_8_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.adg0727"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_9_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jmb.2019.09.004"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_10_1","first-page":"2519","article-title":"Interplay between plants and microbial communities: insights from holobionts and environmental interactions","volume":"93","author":"Choi S","year":"2024","unstructured":"Choi S, Lee H-S (2024). 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