Nature Communications (Jun 2018)

Spatial self-organization resolves conflicts between individuality and collective migration

  • X. Fu,
  • S. Kato,
  • J. Long,
  • H. H. Mattingly,
  • C. He,
  • D. C. Vural,
  • S. W. Zucker,
  • T. Emonet

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04539-4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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How bacteria migrate collectively despite individual phenotypic variation is not understood. Here, the authors show that cells spontaneously sort themselves within moving bands such that variations in individual tumble bias, a determinant of gradient climbing speed, are compensated by the local gradient steepness experienced by individuals.