Cited by 530Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensingBacterial Genetics and BiotechnologyMicrobial Community Ecology and Physiology

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Bacteria as Multicellular Organisms

Shapiro, James A.·1988·Scientific American

DOI 10.1038/scientificamerican0688-82

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“Streptomycetes are now viewed as multicellular prokaryotes that have evolved separate somatic and germ-line function, using two morphologically and physiologically distinct cell lineages, namely substrate and aerial mycelium, respectively (Chater 1989; Chater and Losick 1997; Shapiro 1988).”
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Chirality provides a direct fitness advantage and facilitates intermixing in cellular aggregates
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The mode transition of the bacterial colony
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“the agar and the nutrient concentration in the medium, the former corresponds to the hardness of the medium [4,5].”
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Vesicular inhibitory amino acid transporter is expressed in γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-containing astrocytes in rat pineal glands
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Bursts of sectors in expanding bacterial colonies as a possible model for tumor growth and metastases
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“The cooperative behavior is observed in a diverse range of microorganisms [4–12].”
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Extracellular Factors of Bacterial Adaptation to Unfavorable Environmental Conditions
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Structural biology of epithelial tissue in histophysiologic gradient culture
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“Shapiro ( 43 ) comments "bacteria form complex communities, hunt and prey in groups and secrete chemical trails for the directed movement of thousands of individuals." Within bacterial colonies there is a division of labor among the cells, so that specialized and incompatible chemical processes can concurrently procee…”
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Growth patterns of yeast colonies depending on nutrient supply
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Mechatronics design of a robot society : a case study of minimalist underwater robots for distributed perception and task execution
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MULTICELLULARITY AND BIOFILMS
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Pore-forming treatments induce aggregation of Salmonella Senftenberg through protein leakage
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Bacterial body plans
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A phenomenological model for the collective landing of bird flocks
Daruka, I. (2008) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1444 · Cited by 13
THE EVOLUTION OF PERCEPTION
Martin, R. G. C. C. (2001) · Cybernetics & Systems · doi:10.1080/01969720151033553 · Cited by 13
Aggregating, polarizing, networking – The evolution of cell adhesion codes
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Uniform categorization of biocommunication in bacteria, fungi and plants
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BACTERIA COLONY APPROACHES WITH VARIABLE VELOCITY APPLIED TO PATH OPTIMIZATION OF MOBILE ROBOTS
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Transgenética computacional: uma aplicação ao problema quadrático de alocação
Goldbarg, M. C., & Goldbarg, E. F. G. (2002) · Pesquisa Operacional · doi:10.1590/s0101-74382002000300005 · Cited by 14
“…guiar o conteúdo genético, a TC utiliza-se de mecanismos mais simples de recombinação genética que imitam o paradigma procariótico de adaptação, isto é, a transferência de genes entre organismos procarióticos realizada através dos processos de transdução, transformação e conjugação (Shapiro, 1988).”
An evolutionary optimum amid moderate heritability in prokaryotic cell size
Secaira-Morocho, H., Chede, A., González-de-Salceda, L., García‐Pichel, F., & Zhu, Q. (2024) · Cell Reports · doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114268 · Cited by 12
Resolving spatiotemporal dynamics in bacterial multicellular populations: approaches and challenges
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“However, an appreciation of “common” bacteria as multicellular organisms started only very slowly, with two seminal conceptual articles by Shapiro (10, 11).”
Analysis and identification of ADP-ribosylated proteins of Streptomyces coelicolor M145
Penyige, A., Keserű, J. S., Fazakas, F., et al. (2009) · The Journal of Microbiology · doi:10.1007/s12275-009-0032-y · Cited by 12
Capillary instability of axisymmetric, active liquid crystal jets
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Social behavior in bacterial nanonetworks: challenges and opportunities
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“The bacterial colony then collectively expands by cell division and mobilize through gliding to the newly detected food source [17].”
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Ultrasensitive Response of Developing Myxococcus xanthus to the Addition of Nutrient Medium Correlates with the Level of MrpC
Hoang, Y., & Kroos, L. (2018) · Journal of Bacteriology · doi:10.1128/jb.00456-18 · Cited by 12
Microbial adaptation to a changeable environment: Cell‐cell interactions mediate physiological and genetic differentiation
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Hydrodynamics of bacterial colonies: Phase diagrams
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Four-space formulation of Dirac's equation
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Surface films ofEscherichia colicolonies
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Size matters: Filamentous bacteria drive interstitial vortex formation and colony expansion in Paenibacillus vortex
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“Shapiro JA, Dworkin M, editors.”
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Is Smaller Better? A Proposal to Use Bacteria For Neuroscientific Modeling
Ram, A., & Lo, A. W. (2018) · Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fncom.2018.00007 · Cited by 11
“The complexity of bacterial function in many ways mirrors that of eukaryotic cells: bacteria are capable of cell-cell interactions, rudimentary cellular differentiation, colonization, and even predator-prey interactions between species (Shapiro, 1988, 1998).”
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Self-Elongation with Sequential Folding of a Filament of Bacterial Cells
Honda, R., Wakita, J.-I., & Katori, M. (2015) · Journal of the Physical Society of Japan · doi:10.7566/jpsj.84.114002 · Cited by 11
Social behaviour of microbial populations
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“How” vs. “Why” questions in symbiogenesis, and the causal role of synergy
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Hostile Environments: Modifying Surfaces to Block Microbial Adhesion and Biofilm Formation
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“It is now widely accepted that bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms prefer to grow in communities attached to biotic or abiotic surfaces embedded in the ECM and protected from environmental challenges [13–15].”
Growth instabilities shape morphology and genetic diversity of microbial colonies
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“Despite their apparent simplicity, microbial colonies could produce intricate spatial patterns that depend on both the species and the growth conditions [10, 16, 19, 34].”
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Novel Aspects of Signaling in Streptomyces Development
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Disruption of SCO5461 gene coding for a mono-ADP-ribosyltransferase enzyme produces a conditional pleiotropic phenotype affecting morphological differentiation and antibiotic production in Streptomyces coelicolor
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Neubewertung kognitiver Leistungen im Lichte der Fähigkeiten einzelliger Lebewesen
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An Application Concept of an Underwater Robot Society
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“In several studies, including e.g. [1] and [2], the source of inspiration has been found from social insects.”
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Regulation of Bacterial Behavior by Light and Magnetism Mediated by Mesoporous Silica-Coated MnFe2O4@CoFe2O4 Nanoparticles
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Changes in the phase variant spectra in the populations of lactic acid bacteria under antibiotic treatment
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Current status and future prospects of using advanced computer-based methods to study bacterial colonial morphology
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“[3,11 – 13] Since then, numerous reports have demonstrated how medium nutrition, agar hardness, and other environmental factors can affect the lateral and vertical growth of a colony.”
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A 2D numerical study of polar active liquid crystal flows in a cavity
Yang, X., & Wang, Q. (2017) · Computers & Fluids · doi:10.1016/j.compfluid.2017.05.002 · Cited by 9
Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2): from genome sequence to function
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Pre-Formed Carriers for Cell Immobilisation
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“During the course of evolution, bacterial colonies have developed sophisticated behavior, intricate communication capabilities, decentralized colony control, group foraging strategies and a high degree of worker cooperation when tackling tasks [7], [ 8 ].”
KINGDOM PROKARYOTAE (Bacteria, Monera, Prokarya)
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“It has been known for several decades that bacteria use a sophisticated communication system based on exchanging chemical messages (Shapiro 1988; Bassler 2002).”
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Morphological and physiological changes in Streptomyces lividans induced by different yeasts
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“The cyanobacteria whose cells can specialize in either the carbon or the nitrogen fixation process provides illustrative instance [21, 22] (an application of our model to this example is developed in section 3.”
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Determination of DNA architecture of bacteria under various types of stress, methodological approaches, problems, and solutions
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“(See Shapiro (1988) and Bukharin et al. (2005) for details.)”
Epistemology of synthetic biology: a new theoretical framework based on its potential objects and objectives
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“Although bacteria have often been described as simple unicellular microbes, there are a growing number of examples of multicellularity among prokaryotic microorganisms (Shapiro & Dworkin 1997).”
Background
Network structures in biological systems
Oleskin, A. V. (2014) · Biology Bulletin Reviews · doi:10.1134/s2079086414010034 · Cited by 7
“These structures behave as coherent entities capable of collectively moving over the substrate, forming cell swarms and fruiting bodies, and regenerating after injury (Shapiro, 1988, 1995; Sumina, 2006).”
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Shaking-induced motility in suspensions of soft active particles
Bartolo, D., & Lauga, E. (2010) · Physical Review E · doi:10.1103/physreve.81.026312 · Cited by 7
Role of Microbial Communities in Sustainable Rice Cultivation
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Cryptic surface-associated multicellularity emerges through cell adhesion and its regulation
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Path Planning for Unmanned Vehicles Using Ant Colony Optimization on a Dynamic Voronoi Diagram.
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‘Devolution’ as an opportunity to test the ‘synergism hypothesis’ and a cybernetic theory of political systems
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Modelling and Numerical Analysis of the Colony Formation of Bacteria
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Bacterium Robot Society-A biologically inspired multi-agent concept for internal monitoring and controlling of processes
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“It took decades before the prejudices were won, and the idea of bacteria as multicellular organisms with abilities to form communities, hunt in groups and even communicate with each others were accepted [16].”
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Bacterial self-organisation and computationPreprint
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“dual cells respondto the others in their neighbourhoodand to the conditions in theirenvironments(whichwill be differentfordifferentindividualbacteria, even if they are relatively close to each other) [14, 23, 43, 44]. The physical appearance of these patterns is largely due to cells aggregating together in different w…”
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Evolution and the Fate of Humankind
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A new form of bacterial movement, dragging of multicellular aggregate structures over solid surfaces, is powered by macrofiber supercoiling
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The Artistry of Bacterial Colonies and the Antibiotic Crisis
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“community or even as a multicellular organism [8,10].”
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Turbulence Under The Microscope
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Introduction: Speculations Concerning the Origins of the Self
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Research on population organization and communication in microorganisms
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“Coordinated movements of cells in a colony were investigated in detail in studies with myxobacteria (see review, [ 58 ]).”
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The Evolution of Politics
Coming, P. A. (2003) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9783527619702.ch6 · Cited by 6
Group Behavior of a Mobile Underwater Robot Society Destroying Distributed Targets in a Closed Process Environment
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The Natural Whey Starter Used in the Production of Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano PDO Cheeses: A Complex Microbial Community
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“The hypothesis of thinking of complex microbial ecosystems as multicellular organisms, whose individual components interact and influence each other [48,49], remains highly suggestive.”
Long-Chain Alkylthio Cyclodextrin Derivatives for Modulation of Quorum-Sensing-Based Bioluminescence in Aliivibrio fischeri Model System
Fenyvesi, É., Berkl, Z., Ligethy, L., Fekete‐Kertész, I., Csizmazia, M., Malanga, M., Puskás, I., Szőcs, L., Iványi, R., Kese, I., et al. (2024) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · doi:10.3390/ijms25137139 · Cited by 5

Authors: Shapiro, J. A.
Corresponding author: Shapiro, James A.
ORCID: Shapiro, James A.
Venue: Scientific American
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published: 1988-06
Volume: 258
Issue: 6
Pages: 82-89
ISSN: 0036-8733 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1038/scientificamerican0688-82
OpenAlex: W2037294630
Cited by: 524
References: 0
Citations by year: 2026: 3 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 21
FWCI: 2.37
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: Scientific American (publishedVersion)
Topics: Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensing
Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
Keywords: bacteria, multicellularity, bacterial aggregation, bacterial social behavior, biofilm

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