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Swarming in Bacteria: A Tale of Plasticity in Motility Behavior

  • Review Article
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Journal of the Indian Institute of Science Aims and scope

Abstract

One of the most fascinating sights in nature is to witness certain insects, birds, and fish move together in a very coordinated and precise fashion for food search, to avoid predation and for migration. The collective movement is called swarming. In 1885, Gustav Hauser, a German pathologist discovered collective movement in a bacterium he later named Proteus mirabilis (Armbruster and Mobley in, Nat Rev Microbiol 30: 186–194, 2013). It was not until 1972 when this mode of bacterial movement was characterized and classified by Henrichsen (Bacteriol Rev 36: 478–503, 1972). Several bacteria are now known to exhibit swarming. Here we describe the how and why of swarming with a focus on plasticity.

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Acknowledgement

We thank M.S. Akhil and Sandeep Xavier for illustrations. We thank S. Joge and M.A. Kollaran for images of P. aeruginosa swarm.

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  1. Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India

    Rahul Jose & Varsha Singh

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  1. Rahul Jose
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  2. Varsha Singh
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Correspondence to Varsha Singh.

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Jose, R., Singh, V. Swarming in Bacteria: A Tale of Plasticity in Motility Behavior. J Indian Inst Sci 100, 515–524 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41745-020-00177-2

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