Decoding how bacteria talk with each other

Bacteria, the smallest living organisms in the world, form communities where unified bodies of individuals live together, contribute a share of the property and share common interests.

The soil around a plant’s roots contains millions of organisms interacting constantly — too many busy players to study at once, despite the importance of understanding how microbes mingle.

In a study published in the journal mBio, researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison learned that a drastically scaled-down model of a microbial community makes it possible to observe some of the complex interactions. In doing so, they discovered a key player in microbial communication: the presence or absence of an antibiotic compound produced by one of the community members affected the behavior of the other two members...

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Ken Notes: This could be the next big thing and UW is leading the charge...