title: Gregarious cyanobacteria.
abstract: Huber and collaborators reported in this issue of Environmental Microbiology about freshwater picocyanobacteria that showed phenotypic plasticity in the sense that they appeared as single cells as well as in aggregates. The authors suggested that aggregation might be an inducible defense as a response to the presence of grazers. This has been described for eukaryotic phytoplankton and for the cyanobacterium Microcystis but thus far not for picocyanobacteria. Although inducible defense as an explanation is an attractive possibility, it is also problematic. Aggregation is common among cyanobacteria and it offers many advantages as compared with a free-living lifestyle. Here these advantages are highlighted and the possibility of inducible defense is critically assessed.
authors.affiliation: NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, Utrecht University, Den Burg, P.O.Box 59, The Netherlands.|University of Amsterdam, IBED Department of Aquatic Microbiology, Amsterdam, P.O.Box 94248, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Lucas J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Stal
mesh_terms: D001422:Bacterial Adhesion / Q000502:physiology*; D000458:Cyanobacteria / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology*; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000382:microbiology; D059013:Microbial Consortia / Q000502:physiology*; D046931:Microcystis / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology