Polysaccharide breakdown products drive degradation-dispersal cycles of foraging bacteria through changes in metabolism and motility.

Most of Earth's biomass is composed of polysaccharides. During biomass decomposition, polysaccharides are degraded by heterotrophic bacteria as a nutrient and energy source and are thereby partly remineralized into CO. As polysaccharides are heterogeneously distributed in nature, following the colonization and degradation of a polysaccharide hotspot the cells need to reach new polysaccharide hotspots.

Marine bacteria spp. require UDP-glucose-4-epimerase for aggregation and production of sticky exopolymer.

Unlabelled: The physiology and ecology of particle-associated marine bacteria are of growing interest, but our knowledge of their aggregation behavior and mechanisms controlling their association with particles remains limited. We have found that a particle-associated isolate, sp. ALT199 strain 4B03, and the related type-strain 27126 both form large (>500 μm) aggregates while growing in rich medium.