The ability to navigate in chemical gradients, called chemotaxis, is crucial for the survival of microorganisms. It allows them to find food and to escape from toxins. Many microorganisms can produce the chemicals to which they respond themselves and use chemotaxis for signaling, which can be seen as a basic form of communication, allowing ensembles of microorganisms to coordinate their behavior, for example, during embryogenesis, biofilm formation, or cellular aggregation. For example, Dictyostelium cells use signaling as a survival strategy: when starving, they produce certain chemicals toward which other cells show taxis. This leads to aggregation of the cells resulting in a multicellular aggregate that can sustain long starvation periods.

中文翻译：

---

活性物质的合成趋化性和集体行为

在称为化学趋化性的化学梯度中导航的能力对于微生物的生存至关重要。它使他们能够找到食物并逃脱毒素。许多微生物可以产生它们自己对之做出反应的化学物质，并利用趋化性进行信号传递，这可以被视为一种基本的交流形式，可以使整个微生物群协调其行为，例如在胚胎发生，生物膜形成或细胞聚集期间。例如，盘基硬脑膜细胞使用信号传导作为生存策略：饥饿时，它们会产生某些化学物质，其他细胞会向这些化学物质滑行。这导致细胞聚集，从而形成可以维持长饥饿期的多细胞聚集体。