<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Plant-associated environments harbor a huge number of diverse bacteria that compete and/or cooperate for the occupation of the most nutrient-rich ecological niches. Motility, a common trait among bacteria, has long been assumed to provide a survival advantage to skilful bacteria in invading these environments. Bacterial surface motility, such as swarming, a flagella-driven type of surface movement, although mostly observed and studied on agar substrates, is emerging as a major trait involved in many functions of plant-associated bacteria in regard to their ability to colonize and spread on their host. In this review, we address some novel swarming motility strategies, which enable bacteria to colonize, disperse and compete in plant surfaces.</p></abstract>

Plant-associated environments harbor a huge number of diverse bacteria that compete and/or cooperate for the occupation of the most nutrient-rich ecological niches. Motility, a common trait among bacteria, has long been assumed to provide a survival advantage to skilful bacteria in invading these environments. Bacterial surface motility, such as swarming, a flagella-driven type of surface movement, although mostly observed and studied on agar substrates, is emerging as a major trait involved in many functions of plant-associated bacteria in regard to their ability to colonize and spread on their host. In this review, we address some novel swarming motility strategies, which enable bacteria to colonize, disperse and compete in plant surfaces.

Swarming motility in plant-associated bacteria

Laboratory of General and Agricultural Microbiology, Department of Crop Science, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, Votanikos, GR-118 55 Athens, Greece

Hellenic Plant Protection Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Η ομαδική κινητικότητα των βακτηρίων στις επιφάνειες των φυτών

Plant-associated environments harbor a huge number of diverse bacteria that compete and/or cooperate for the occupation of the most nutrient-rich ecological...

Swarming motility in plant-associated bacteria

Published Online: Jan 19, 2016

Page range: 16 - 27

Received: Dec 13, 2015

Accepted: Jan 07, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/hppj-2016-0002

© 2016 A. Venieraki et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.