Institute for Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Nat Rev Microbiol. 2022 Aug;20(8):491-504. doi: 10.1038/s41579-022-00709-w. Epub 2022 Mar 15.
How bacterial chemotaxis is performed is much better understood than why. Traditionally, chemotaxis has been understood as a foraging strategy by which bacteria enhance their uptake of nutrients and energy, yet it has remained puzzling why certain less nutritious compounds are strong chemoattractants and vice versa. Recently, we have gained increased understanding of alternative ecological roles of chemotaxis, such as navigational guidance in colony expansion, localization of hosts or symbiotic partners and contribution to microbial diversity by the generation of spatial segregation in bacterial communities. Although bacterial chemotaxis has been observed in a wide range of environmental settings, insights into the phenomenon are mostly based on laboratory studies of model organisms. In this Review, we highlight how observing individual and collective migratory behaviour of bacteria in different settings informs the quantification of trade-offs, including between chemotaxis and growth. We argue that systematically mapping when and where bacteria are motile, in particular by transgenerational bacterial tracking in dynamic environments and in situ approaches from guts to oceans, will open the door to understanding the rich interplay between metabolism and growth and the contribution of chemotaxis to microbial life.
细菌如何进行趋化作用比其原因要了解得多。传统上，趋化作用被理解为细菌增强其对营养物质和能量吸收的觅食策略，但仍然令人费解的是，为什么某些营养成分较低的化合物是强烈的趋化引诱剂，反之亦然。最近，我们对趋化作用的其他生态作用有了更多的了解，例如在殖民地扩张中的导航指导、宿主或共生伙伴的定位以及通过在细菌群落中产生空间隔离来促进微生物多样性。尽管已经在广泛的环境中观察到细菌趋化作用，但对该现象的了解主要基于对模式生物的实验室研究。在这篇综述中，我们强调了在不同环境中观察单个和集体迁移行为的细菌如何为权衡的量化提供信息，包括趋化作用和生长之间的权衡。我们认为，系统地绘制细菌在何时何地处于运动状态，特别是通过在动态环境中进行跨代细菌跟踪和从肠道到海洋的原位方法，将为理解代谢和生长之间的丰富相互作用以及趋化作用对微生物生命的贡献打开大门。
