While traditionally microbiologists have examined bacterial behavior averaged over large populations, increasingly we are becoming aware that bacterial populations can be composed of phenotypically diverse individuals generated by a variety of mechanisms. Though the results of different mechanisms, the phenomena of bistability, persistence, variation in chemotactic response, and phase and antigenic variation are all strategies to develop population-level diversity. The understanding of individuality in bacteria requires an appreciation of their environmental and ecological context, and thus evolutionary theory regarding adaptations to time-variable environments is becoming more applicable to these problems. In particular, the application of game and information theory to bacterial individuality has addressed some interesting problems of bacterial behavior. In this review we discuss the mechanisms of generating population-level variability, and the application of evolutionary theory to problems of individuality in bacteria.

中文翻译：

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细菌的个性。

传统上，微生物学家检查了大型种群平均的细菌行为，但越来越多的我们意识到细菌种群可以由表型多样的个体组成，这些个体是由各种机制产生的。尽管是不同机制的结果，但是双稳态，持久性，趋化反应变化以及相变和抗原变化都是发展种群水平多样性的策略。对细菌个体性的理解要求他们了解其环境和生态环境，因此关于适应时变环境的进化论正越来越适用于这些问题。特别是，博弈论和信息论在细菌个体中的应用解决了细菌行为的一些有趣的问题。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了产生种群水平变异性的机制，以及进化理论在细菌个体性问题中的应用。