[Ka Wai Ma] United we stand. Division of labor in bacteria
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Small microorganisms like bacteria are actually smarter than we thought. In a “journal club” articled published in Nature Reviews Microbiology, Dr. Ka-Wai Ma summarized the coordinated actions of a group of plant pathogens called Pseudomonas syringae. The bacteria carry out division of labors with one population getting ready to fight against the plant immune responses; another population is staying lowkey, getting ready to flee if the situation changes. The original study was published in Nature Microbiology early this year. The study serves as a wakeup call that heterogeneity is an intrinsic property of microbes. Microbes may be small but they can work together to increase species survival. Dr. Ma is interested to see whether such a division of labor also exist at the whole microbiome level.