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Collective decision-making in microbes.

Adin Ross-Gillespie1, Rolf Kümmerli1

  • 1Microbial Evolutionary Ecology, Institute of Plant Biology, University of Zürich Zürich, Switzerland.

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|March 14, 2014
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Microbial coordination relies on collective decision-making, integrating environmental and social cues. This process, common across species, involves information sharing and strategic responses for population-level actions.

Keywords:
collective decision-makingconflictscooperationcoordinationmicrobesphenotypic plasticitysocial informationtrade-offs

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Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Behavioral Ecology
  • Systems Biology

Background:

  • Microbes exhibit complex social behaviors and coordinated population-level phenotypes.
  • Coordination necessitates collective decision-making, integrating environmental and social information.
  • Understanding microbial sociality is crucial for fields ranging from medicine to ecology.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To provide a conceptual overview of collective decision-making in microbes.
  • To introduce principles from animal and human group decisions.
  • To explore the applicability of these principles to microbial contexts.

Main Methods:

  • Conceptual review and synthesis of existing research.
  • Application of established decision-making frameworks to microbial systems.
  • Discussion of key concepts such as information pooling and quorum sensing.

Main Results:

  • Microbial collective decision-making shares fundamental features with that of higher taxa.
  • Key concepts like information pooling, control skew, and speed-accuracy trade-offs are relevant to microbes.
  • Factors such as local feedbacks, quorum thresholds, and social information reliability are critical.

Conclusions:

  • Collective decision-making is a unifying principle across diverse group-living organisms.
  • Further integration of microbial decision-making with research in other disciplines is warranted.
  • This field offers a bridge between microbiology, behavioral sciences, and physical sciences.