ArticlePLoS biology2015
From cell differentiation to cell collectives: Bacillus subtilis uses division of labor to migrate.
Article in PLoS biology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 131 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
131 citing papers in PubMed, 232 citations in OpenAlex.
- Compatibility among Bacillus strains is linked to synthetic communities function, rhizosphere microbiome assembly and plant performance.Plant cell reports · 2026Article
- Synthetic microbial communities for studying the fate and ecological role of specialized metabolites.Essays in biochemistry · 2026Review
- Interplay of Spatial Structure and Interactions in Microbial Communities.Environmental microbiology · 2026Review
- Lives in a gram of soil: linking life cycle biology to soil ecology.The ISME journal · 2026Review
- Phase variation of Clostridioides difficile colony morphology occurs via modulation of cell division.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Article
- The iron chelator pulcherriminic acid mediates the light response in Bacillus subtilis biofilms.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Surfactin acceleratesBiofilm · 2025Article
- Plipastatin is a shared good by Bacillus subtilis during combating Fusarium spp.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2025Article
- Biofilms as more than the sum of their parts: lessons from developmental biology.Current opinion in microbiology · 2024Review
- Quantifying the fractal complexity of nutrient transport channels inMicrobiology (Reading, England) · 2024Article
- Specialized Listeria monocytogenes produce tailocins to provide a population-level competitive growth advantage.Nature microbiology · 2024Article
- Sliding motility of Bacillus cereus mediates vancomycin pseudo-resistance during antimicrobial susceptibility testing.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2024Article
- Mesoscopic ring element growth and deformation induced biofilm streamer evolution in microfluidic channels.Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research · 2024Article
- Plasmid-free cheater cells commonly evolve during laboratory growth.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
- MOB rules: Antibiotic Exposure Reprograms Metabolism to MobilizebioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Article
- Article
- Single-cell patterning and characterisation of antibiotic persistent bacteria using bio-sCAPA.Lab on a chip · 2023Article
- Direct comparison of spatial transcriptional heterogeneity across diverse Bacillus subtilis biofilm communities.Nature communications · 2023Article
71 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The organization of cells, emerging from cell-cell interactions, can give rise to collective properties. These properties are adaptive when together cells can face environmental challenges that they separately cannot. One particular challenge that is important for microorganisms is migration. In this study, we show how flagellum-independent migration is driven by the division of labor of two cell types that appear during Bacillus subtilis sliding motility. Cell collectives organize themselves into bundles (called "van Gogh bundles") of tightly aligned cell chains that form filamentous loops at the colony edge. We show, by time-course microscopy, that these loops migrate by pushing themselves away from the colony. The formation of van Gogh bundles depends critically on the synergistic interaction of surfactin-producing and matrix-producing cells. We propose that surfactin-producing cells reduce the friction between cells and their substrate, thereby facilitating matrix-producing cells to form bundles. The folding properties of these bundles determine the rate of colony expansion. Our study illustrates how the simple organization of cells within a community can yield a strong ecological advantage. This is a key factor underlying the diverse origins of multicellularity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.