Just like we human communicate with precise language and grammar there must be some communication route for Microorganism (primitive organisms).
Microorganisms communicate via chemicals released to the media and through direct mechanical contact.
However there's no "universal" chemical for communication, each species produces and have receptors for different chemicals. Hanno Krieger thinks there's no "personally decided aim", but there's a clear one: survival of the species. They have evolved to know whats going on in their surrounding. Otherwise they would die.
So, with a more specific question maybe somebody can help you better.
I think your assumption is debatable: "there must be some communication".
The language I can think of is: "eat the others" and "defend against others", but that is not a communication, and not in both directions. Perhaps, one could consider bacteria exchanging some plasmids, so there must be some adhesion, receptors, and in some cases "communication" with at least one getting a plasmid from another...
I am agree with your view Mr. Robert Eibl, but after the expansion of area of molecular nose ....where I was explained by researcher that microorganisms secretes some slimy layers around it to determine the pattern of growth and its population.
Bacteria is evolved throughout and communication must be within the molecular level in the form of chemical and its reception.
I do not have much literature in this regards. Plz share here if anyone have more information.
Microbes communicate with each other when they are need of food,and when they have sufficient food they communicate to grow and to form spores in case of bacillus sopecies. (Quorum sensing in sporulation).Microbes do communicate during mating (conjugation) and when they come across a advrse condition in their nitch.They communicate usually sending chemicals released by their metabolites,and also through flagella,pili, and extrcellular polysacharides .In most of their communication chemicals play a vital role in sendinng and accepting a particular message.
I guess Dictyostelium discoideum could be a useful model organism, which usually lives as single cell microbe, but eventually under starving conditions can form a multicellular-like organism and form spores. This organism needs a homotypic adhesion molecule to be able to form such a multicellular organism-like structure, but I am skeptical to compare such evolutionary necessities of such organism "communication" compared to communication in higher vertebrates (or even insects).
Via Quorum sensing by producing some mediators such as homoserine lactones and thermones
All the mechanisms you have discussed are no communications, they are signal transfers without a defined and personally decided aim. Communications are consciously produced signals focussed to a selected receptor.
Microorganisms communicate via chemicals released to the media and through direct mechanical contact.
However there's no "universal" chemical for communication, each species produces and have receptors for different chemicals. Hanno Krieger thinks there's no "personally decided aim", but there's a clear one: survival of the species. They have evolved to know whats going on in their surrounding. Otherwise they would die.
So, with a more specific question maybe somebody can help you better.
@Fernando, you are right, I used the wrong expression, I meant target not aim. The aim is perfectly defined by your statement.
Perhaps the question could be reformulated in an evolutionary background as “why and how do living entities communicate ?” The “why” question has been partially answered by Fernando Aleman and Robert Eibl: “Survival of the species, eat the others and defend against others”. Their answers could be generalized in “satisfy a stay alive constraint” (individual & species).
Such constraint exist for all living entities, from bacteria to humans.
Communication is then an action implemented to satisfy the “stay alive” constraint (the implementation of the action can be looked as addressing the “how” of communication). Of course, other actions exist like move away/towards, ….
Other constraints exist also. At the level of “stay alive” is “live group life”. And reaching human level brings in constraints like look for happiness, avoid anxiety, …
But between the constraint to satisfy and the implemented action there is a “meaning generation” where the organisms compares the received information to the constraint. If there is a connection between the two, a meaning is generated. Like “presence of X is not compatible with the “stay alive“ constraint”. We can consider that the generated meaning is used by the organism to implement an action in order to satisfy the constraint.
More is available on that perspective at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/28765331_Introduction_to_a_systemic_theory_of_meaning?ev=prf_pub (short presentation) and https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224049390_Computation_on_Information_Meaning_and_Representations._An_Evolutionary_approach?ev=prf_pub (paper).
Article Introduction to a systemic theory of meaning
Chapter Chapter A Computation on Information, Meaning and Representa...
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Microbiology
- Microorganisms