Swarming in Bacteria: A Tale of Plasticity in Motility Behavior 1

Abstract

One of the most fascinating sights in nature is to witness certain
insects, birds, and fish move together in a very coordinated and precise
fashion for food search, to avoid predation and for migration. The
collective movement is called swarming. In 1885, Gustav Hauser, a German
pathologist discovered collective movement in a bacterium he later
named Proteus mirabilis (Armbruster and Mobley in, Nat Rev Microbiol 30:
186–194, 2013). It was not until 1972 when this mode of bacterial movement
was characterized and classified by Henrichsen (Bacteriol Rev 36:
478–503, 1972). Several bacteria are now known to exhibit swarming.
Here we describe the how and why of swarming with a focus on plasticity.