Bacteria as Multicellular Organisms

Bacteria as Multicellular Organisms is the first book devoted specifically to multicellular aspects of bacterial life, representing a new approach to bacteria. Contrary to conventional wisdom, which treats bacteria as autonomous single cells, this book shows how bacteria are sentient, interactive organisms with an unexpecteedly broad repertoire of chemical and physical mechanisms for signalling each other and organizing themselves into multicellular aggregates with novel properties. The book has been compiled from reports by specialists in a variety of disciplines from genetics and microbiology to environmental engineering and biotechnology. This interdisciplinary approach reflects the growing importance of bacteria as key experimental material for investigating phenomena common to many fields in contemporary science: communication, complexity, self-organization, and pattern formation. The impact of bacterial multicellularity will affect such diverse areas as evolutionary population biology, non-linear dynamics, and information science.

1 - Multiculturalism vs. the single microbe,
2 - Multicellularity is the rule, not the exception: Lessons from E. coli colonies,
3 - Pheromone-inducible conjugation in Enterococcus faecalis: mating interactions mediated by chemical signals and direct contact,
4 - N-acyl-L-homoserine lactone autoinducers in bacteria: unity and diversity expanding the prokaryotic paradigm: E. coli colonies teach us that multicellularity is the rule rather than the exception,
5 - Cyanobacteria,
6 - The mycelial life-style of Streptomyces Coelicolor A3(2) and its relatives,
7 - Proteus mirabilis and other swarming bacteria,
8 - Myxobacterial multicellularity,
9 - Oral microbiology and coaggregation,
10 - Flow cytometry: a useful tool for analyzing bacterial populations cell by cell,
11 - In situ analyses of microbial populations with molecular probes: the phylogenetic dimension,
12 - Physical and Genetic consequences of multicellularity in Bacillus subtilis,
13 - The formulation of colony patterns by a bacterial cell population,
14 - Cooperative formation of bacterial patterns,
15 - The collective behavior and dynamics of swimming bacteria,