Social motility

There are multiple varieties of each kingdom that express social motility that provides a unique evolutionary advantages that other species do not possess.

[2] These evolutionary advantages have proven to increase survival rate among socially motile bacteria whether it be the ability to evade predators[3] or communication within a swarm to form spores for long term hibernation in times of low nutrients or toxic environments.

To perform a motility assay, semi-solid agar is inoculated with a small amount of a liquid suspension containing the specimen of interest.

As first discovered in plants, diffusible signal factors (DSFs) have been found in bacteria such as Burkholderia cenocepacia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Similar to the combined release of degrading enzymes, antibodies allow for a colony of bacteria to fight off surrounding organisms in the same habitat.

The Chemotaxis mechanism can be amplified by social motility to alert all cells in the cluster of bacteria to move towards nutrients.

The amoebas eventually aggregate into a single “slug,” which responds to moisture and light gradients as it searches for a good place to form a reproductive stalk and produce spores.

These protein complexes, powered by a proton motive force, rotate within the membrane allowing cells to glide over surfaces.

Twitching Motility uses a type IV pili that extends, tethers to a surface, and then pulls the bacteria forward.

They then compared their quickest strain to wild type species to see if there is a need for higher rates of motility in the environment but none came close.