
The hidden beauty of the microbes that live in our mouths, on our skin and even in our faeces has been highlighted in a series of stunning images 'painted' in agar jelly.

Microbiologists from around the world have created artwork by placing various strains of bacteria with proteins into petri dishes and letting the microbes react and spread across carefully drawn patterns.

Each of the creations was entered into the inaugural Agar Art Challenge and designs range from Micro Minions to the American Flag, neurons and a portrait of chemist Louis Pasteur.

The Agar Art Challenge was the first competition of its kind hosted by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). Entries were posted to ASM's official Facebook page and the top three submissions were chosen by members of the society. The winning entry is called Neurons (pictured) and was 'painted' using microbes Nesterenkonia (yellow), Deinococcus (orange) and Sphingomonas, shown in red

The Agar Art Challenge was the first competition of its kind hosted by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).

Entries were posted to ASM's official Facebook page and the top three submissions were chosen by members of the society and artists. A fourth prize, called 'People's Choice', was chosen based on the number of Likes the images received.

First place was awarded to Mehmet Berkmen from New England Biolands, with artist Maria Penil.

Called 'Neurons', the entry was 'painted' using microbes of Nesterenkonia, shown in yellow, Deinococcus, in orange, and Sphingomonas, shown in red.

Second place was awarded to NYC Biome Map. The plates were prepared with stencils of New York's street grid and the bacteria was able to grow into these patterns (pictured)

After growing the plates for two days at 30°C (86°F), the 'painting' was sealed in epoxy glue.

Second place was awarded to Christine Marizzi with support from scientists at Genspace community biolab in New York.

Called 'NYC Biome Map', it was created by more than fifty participants who applied bacterial suspension cultures onto square petri plates.

The plates were prepared with stencils of New York's street grid and the bacteria was able to grow into these patterns.

After a short incubation time, participants returned to print the grown colonies on paper.

The bacterial prints were reassembled into the map of New York by placing the individual prints together.

Ms Marizzi said: 'Microorganisms reside everywhere, yet they are too small to be seen with the human eye.

'New York City is a melting pot of cultures - both human and microbial - and every citizen has a personalized microbiome.

'Collectively, we shape New York's microbiome by our lifestyle choices, and this unseen microbial world significantly impacts us.'

The NYC Biome Map used Escherichia coli (E.coli) K12 bacteria engineered with fluorescent proteins including green, red and yellow fluorescent proteins (GFP, RFP and YFP).

Maria Eugenia Inda, a postdoctoral researcher from Argentina working at Cold Spring Harbor Labs was awarded third place in the competition.

Her entry, called 'Harvest Season', used a species of yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

This is the active agent found in bread, wine, and beer and the organism used for the entry was metabolically engineered on the b-carotene pathway, causing it to turn yellow and red.

'The painting depicts a humble farmhouse with the wheat production laced in the country,' explained Ms Inda.

'Amazed by the plasticity of this organism for engineering during the Yeast Genetics and Genomics Summer Course at CSHL I got inspired to paint this agar with the message: "Look at the yeast field, for they are already ripe for harvest!"'

Elsewhere, the People's Choice award was given to the entry called 'Cell to Cell'.

It received almost 3,500 likes on the Facebook album and was created by the same group that 'painted' the winning Neurons entry.

Emily Dilger, a PhD at ASM, said: 'The competition has had such a great response.

'We asked entrants to create any piece of artwork using only microbes for paint and agar as the canvas.

'We did not ask for the source of the microbes, though we did ask for the species.

'A few competitors indicated where the microbes were from - for example, the Hunger Games submission was created from 'streptomyces coelicolor'.

'We were delighted by the variation in submissions and time and effort that went into creating them.'

Other entries included the 'Whooo's Got to Poo?' submission. It shows a black outline of an owl's face made using H2S, Hydrogen sulfide, produced by Salmonella.

In lab testing, the black colonies help microbiologists to distinguish the pathogen from all other normal stool bacteria.

Maria Eugenia Inda, a postdoctoral researcher from Argentina working at Cold Spring Harbor Labs, was awarded third place in the competition. Her entry, called Harvest Season (pictured left), used a species of yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The People's Choice award was given to the entry called Cell to Cell (right) that received almost 3,500 likes on the Facebook album

Another entry, called 'As American as Andy Warhol' used Serratia marcescens and various strains of E. coli on a solution called X-gal to create the red, white and blue of the American flags (pictured). They were presented like Warhol's famous grid prints

Other entries included the 'Whooo's Got to Poo?' submission (pictured left). It shows a black outline of an owl's face made using H2S, Hydrogen sulfide, produced by Salmonella. The 'Bifidobacteria micro-flower' entry (pictured right) was created using Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis - a probiotic widely used in dairy products

The yellow eyes were produced by E.coli - the most common normal bacteria in human stool. The specific type of media these organisms grow on contain Xylose, a type of sugar which E.coli ferments, and this was used to create the yellow pigment.

The 'Bifidobacteria micro-flower' entry was created using Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis - a probiotic widely used in dairy products.

The picture specifically shows genetically modified B. animalis subsp. lactis strains producing a green-fluorescence protein - shown on the stamen and carpels - with a red-fluorescence protein used for the petals.

Another entry, called 'As American as Andy Warhol' used Serratia marcescens and various strains of E. coli on a solution known as X-gal to create the red, white and blue of the American flags.

'The Wild Garden of the Gut Bacteria' (pictured) was painted using a mixture of gut bacteria including E. coli (pale lavender) Citrobacter koseri (turquoise) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (dark blue) plated onto chromogenic agar. This form of agar changes colour in response to enzymes in the different bacteria

The portrait (left) was designed using the Janthinobacterium species, which produces the small, pigmented molecule violacein. This provided much of the contrasting colour, hair and glasses, while the yellow pigmented strains represent the background. Flowering Sunshine (right) was created using Ferric ammonium citrare. The black butterfly is from Salmonella while the flower was created with E.coli

For the portrait of Louis Pasteur, a French chemist and microbiologist, the artists used Chromobacterium violaceum on Muller Hinton agar. C. violaceum can cause infections in animals and humans and are known to be 'opportunistic pathogens'. C. violaceum is capable of growing in any medium and produces an antioxidant called violacein, a purple pigment that gives the pathogen its colour

While 'The Wild Garden of the Gut Bacteria' was painted using a mixture of gut bacteria including E. coli (pale lavender) Citrobacter koseri (turquoise) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (dark blue) plated onto chromogenic agar.

This form of agar changes colour in response to enzymes in the different bacteria.

Flowering Sunshine was created using Ferric ammonium citrare to highlight H2S produced by Salmonella. The black butterfly is the Salmonella while the flower was created using E.coli.

Vibrio bacteria collected from coastal Massachusetts was chosen for the Vibrios at the Beach entry.

The left-hand entry is called Micro Minion and was designed to look like the character from the film Despicable Me. Vibrio bacteria collected from coastal Massachusetts was chosen for the Vibrios at the Beach entry (right). Members of this genus of bacteria are found on crustaceans and can be harmful if ingested. This genus includes the species that causes cholera and some shellfish poisoning

The 'It's Always 5 o'clock Somewhere' entry was drawn on an agar plate with a culture of Photobacterium leiognathi, a marine bacterium in the Vibrionaceae family. The design in this picture was illuminated with white light on the left, and photographed completely in the dark for the image on the right

The left-hand image is called Hunger Games. It used actinomycetes microorganisms found in antibiotics and anti-tumour agents. The 3D-printed agar plate shows a grey and a pink actinomycete with a very dark brown halo, most likely melanin. In the Rose entry (right), the rose bud is Staphylococcus aureus while the stem is Staphylococcus saprophyticus

Members of this genus of bacteria are found on crustaceans and can be harmful if ingested. This genus includes the species that causes cholera and some shellfish poisoning.

For the portrait of Louis Pasteur, a French chemist and microbiologist, the artists used Chromobacterium violaceum on Muller Hinton agar. This type of agar is typically used for testing resistance to antibiotics.

Chromobacterium violaceum can cause infections in animals and humans and are known to be 'opportunistic pathogens'.

C. violaceum is capable of growing in any medium and produces an antioxidant called violacein, a purple pigment that gives C. violaceum its colour.

This antioxidant is used by the organism to defend its membranes.

The 'It's Always 5 o'clock Somewhere' entry was drawn on an agar plate with a culture of Photobacterium leiognathi, a marine bacterium in the Vibrionaceae family.

Agar Ocean View (left) used E.coli to produce the 'sunshine yellow' colour. The black birds were produced using H2S from Salmonella. Superheroes (right) was created by placing Streptomycetes in the agar. Streptomycetes are typically found in soil and are used in antibiotics. The colourful bacteria that you see on this plate are all mutants originating from the same strain of Streptomyces coelicolor

The brown colour in this microbial version of Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night is Proteus mirabilis, a bacterium found in urinary tract infections. The white colour is Acinetobacter baumanii, an bacterium that can cause infection in people with weakened immune systems. The blue-green colour is Enterococcus faecalis and the dark blue color is Klebsiella pneumonia, a bacterium found in the mouth and skin

The design in this picture was illuminated with white light on the left, and photographed completely in the dark for the image on the right.

The brightly luminous strain was found in coastal waters off Hawaii and can be grown using salt. At high concentrations, the bacteria produce a blue-green light.

'We asked artists to follow ASM's safety guidelines when creating their artwork, including wearing personal protective equipment, so it really was a combining of science and art,' Ms Dilger continued.

Entrants were not required to reveal where exactly they had obtained their bacteria, though the submission called One Small Step was created using the 'skin microflora of the foot'.

The competition received 85 submissions from scientists in different fields, with the judging panel ranging from watercolour artists to academic professors.