COMMOTS · Communication Motifs: Principles of bacterial communication in non-genetically diversified populations

Cell-to-cell communication is a central aspect for understanding how cells form and organize multi-cellular communities involving progressive cell specialization. Multi-cellularity cell specialization cell communication those keywords are frequently used to distinguish metazoans from bacteria. Yet bacteria can form morphologically complex multi-cellular communities, they can non-genetically diversify and they can communicate. This implies that even prokaryotic networks must possess the properties to facilitate these complex functions. Thus basic network features ( motifs ) determining these functions can be discovered and characterized from studying simpler bacterial networks. We want to focus on communication motifs that are present in the gene-regulatory network of Bacillus subtilis. Our proposed methodology involves a combination of quantitative fluorescence microscopy techniques (QFTLM, FRET), developmental assays, signal transduction studies in controlled micro-environments and information theory to quantitatively characterize communication motifs..