The scientist at the Zaidín Experimental Station (EEZ-CSIC) states that “Bacteria have social lives because they form complex communities and transmit information to each other.“. A news that has caught the attention of numerous users on social networks.
In depth
The researcher talks about it in the book ‘The social life of bacteria’ (CSIC-Catarata). “These single-celled beings They do not upload images to an Instagram account or go to bars with their colleaguesbut they have a social life because they are capable of forming complex communities and transmitting information among themselves, even with other organisms, through chemical signals“he points out.
“In addition, these interrelationships of bacteria They significantly influence our health, our daily lives and the functioning of ecosystems.“he adds.
The last book in the collection ‘What do we know about?’ explains the strategies and mechanisms of bacteria to colonize very diverse habitats and offers numerous examples of their social behavior.
One of the keys What makes bacteria so persistent and manage to survive in environments that are impossible for other organisms is precisely their ability to create multicellular communities, often associated with surfaces, and embedded in a layer of more or less mucous material that they produce themselves and that protects them.
More details
That is, bacteria generate biofilms or biofilmsa term that was coined in 1975. “Biofilms began as something anecdotal to the scientific community, but in the last two decades they have become one of the main research areas in microbiology“, highlights the author.
Biofilms can form on inert materials such as glassand also on living tissues, such as the roots of plants or our mouth, which we try to protect when we brush our teeth. According to Espinosa, the process is similar in most bacterial species.
some bacteria come into contact with a surface and remain attached to the surface, especially if it is found in a habitat with sufficient nutrients and favorable environmental conditions, and, from there, they begin to divide and group together. Even if can move on the surface recruiting more bacteria.
These groups form what is known as mature biofilmwhere the cells are embedded in a matrix of polymers produced by themselves and that makes up the three-dimensional structure of the protective biofilm. When environmental conditions become unfavorable or nutrients become scarce, the biofilm begins to disperse.
To take into account
The CSIC researcher clarifies that biofilms They are not always composed of populations of the same species of bacteria. For example, in the case of dental plaque, there are species’pioneers‘ that are initially established and the others are recruited based on them.
“It has taken decades of study to unravel in detail this processbut today we know quite precisely the molecular elements that participate in the colonization of surfaces by different bacteria and we are better understanding how the process of biofilm formation is regulated“says Espinosa.
The scientist explains that there are many indications that bacteria are capable of detecting the presence of a favorable surface to begin building their ‘home‘ and launch the program to colonize it. “This, along with many other evidences, suggests that multicellular life on surfaces is not something exceptional, but intrinsic to the life cycle of bacteria“he highlights.
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