AI Article Synopsis
- Microorganisms form complex communities and use coordinated interactions to socialize and thrive.
- There's a lack of understanding regarding how these interactions function within natural, spatially organized environments.
- This Review highlights technologies for organizing microbial communities spatially and methods for analyzing their chemical surroundings, revealing how spatial organization affects microbial behavior and diversity.
Article Abstract
Microorganisms lead social lives and use coordinated chemical and physical interactions to establish complex communities. Mechanistic insights into these interactions have revealed that there are remarkably intricate systems for coordinating microbial behaviour, but little is known about how these interactions proceed in the spatially organized communities that are found in nature. This Review describes the technologies available for spatially organizing small microbial communities and the analytical methods for characterizing the chemical environment surrounding these communities. Together, these complementary technologies have provided novel insights into the impact of spatial organization on both microbial behaviour and the development of phenotypic heterogeneity within microbial communities.
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Source |
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3984535 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3010 | DOI Listing |
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