MPIDS Colloquium: Collective behaviors of motile bacteria

Bacterial chemotaxis is the best understood paradigm of bacterial behavior, typically associated with nutrient foraging by individual cells. In contrast, the importance of motility and chemotaxis in col- lective behaviors of bacteria remains little studied. Here, I will discuss the role played by chemotaxis in (i) formation of suspended multicellular aggregates that consist of one or multiple bacterial species; (ii) attachment to the surface and subsequent formation of biofilms; and (iii) self-organized collective behavior at high density of swimming cells.