TY - JOUR
T1 - Bacterial solutions to multicellularity
T2 - a tale of biofilms, filaments and fruiting bodies
AU - Claessen, Dennis
AU - Rozen, Daniel E.
AU - Kuipers, Oscar P.
AU - Søgaard-Andersen, Lotte
AU - Wezel, Gilles P. van
N1 - Relation: http://www.rug.nl/research/gbb/
Rights: University of Groningen, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Although bacteria frequently live as unicellular organisms, many spend at least part of their lives in complex communities, and some have adopted truly multicellular lifestyles and have abandoned unicellular growth. These transitions to multicellularity have occurred independently several times for various ecological reasons, resulting in a broad range of phenotypes. In this Review, we discuss the strategies that are used by bacteria to form and grow in multicellular structures that have hallmark features of multicellularity, including morphological differentiation, programmed cell death and patterning. In addition, we examine the evolutionary and ecological factors that lead to the wide range of coordinated multicellular behaviours that are observed in bacteria.
AB - Although bacteria frequently live as unicellular organisms, many spend at least part of their lives in complex communities, and some have adopted truly multicellular lifestyles and have abandoned unicellular growth. These transitions to multicellularity have occurred independently several times for various ecological reasons, resulting in a broad range of phenotypes. In this Review, we discuss the strategies that are used by bacteria to form and grow in multicellular structures that have hallmark features of multicellularity, including morphological differentiation, programmed cell death and patterning. In addition, we examine the evolutionary and ecological factors that lead to the wide range of coordinated multicellular behaviours that are observed in bacteria.
U2 - 10.1038/nrmicro3178
DO - 10.1038/nrmicro3178
M3 - Article
SN - 1740-1526
VL - 12
SP - 115
EP - 124
JO - Nature Reviews Microbiology
JF - Nature Reviews Microbiology
IS - 2
ER -