Communication, cooperation, competition and cheating – bacteria are just like us
The sociobiology of bacteria, largely unappreciated and ignored by the microbiology research community two decades ago is now a major research area, catalyzed to a significant degree by studies of communication and cooperative behavior among the myxobacteria and in quorum sensing (QS) and biofilm formation by pseudomonads and other microbes. Recently, the topic of multicellular cooperative behaviors among bacteria has been increasingly considered in the context of evolutionary biology. This essay discusses the significance of two recent studies of the phenomenon of “cheating” mutants and their exploitation of cooperating microbial populations of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Related:
- Quorum Sensing in Bacteria: We Two Are One
- Bacterial Crowd Control
- Pneumococcus: the quorum-sensing killer
- Quorum sensing in Serratia
Tags: Bacteria, Biology, Health, Medicine, Microbiology, Science
