Spatial Structure of Microbes in Nature and the Biophysics of Cell–Cell Communication

Abstract

Microbes are social organisms and their language is chemical. Microbial communities provide cells with structures that facilitate chemical communication and enable them to adapt to environmental pressure. Fossil records demonstrate that microbial communities existed several billion years ago [1] and a wide variety of observations point to the importance of these structures today [2]. The spatial organization of communities provides organisms with advantages for growth and adaptation in fluctuating environmental conditions.