In recent years, bacterial geneticists and microbiologists have begun moving away from the view that the clonal cell populations they study in the lab are homogeneous lots of identical, autonomous individuals and toward one that was suggested decades ago [1], in which social and even multicellular attributes of bacteria are recognized. Bacterial clones display differentiation, development, cell–cell communication, aging, and even apparent apoptosis, and not just the species with visually appreciable phase variations of surface proteins, spore formation, or variation between swimming and sessile cell types. These features appear to be ubiquitous, applying even to Escherichia coli, which has been long regarded as a laboratory model for producing homogeneous cell clones.
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