Bacterial biofilms: prokaryotic adventures in multicellularity.
The development of bacterial biofilms includes both the initial social behavior of undifferentiated cells, as well as cell death and differentiation in the mature biofilm, and displays several striking similarities with higher organisms. Recent advances in the field provide new insight into differentiation and cell death events in bacterial biofilm development and propose that biofilms have an unexpected level of multicellularity.
Webb
Jeremy S
JS
School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, and Centre for Marine Biofouling and Bio-innovation, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Sydney, Australia
Givskov
Michael
M
Kjelleberg
Staffan
S
D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development*; D018441:Biofilms / Q000254:growth & development*; D005075:Biological Evolution