Non-genetic adaptation by collective migration

Cells live in communities where they interact with each other and their environment. By coordinating individuals, such interactions often result in collective behavior that emerge on scales larger than the individuals that are beneficial to the population. At the same time, populations of individuals, even isogenic ones, display phenotypic heterogeneity, which diversifies individual behavior and enhances the resilience of the population in unexpected situations. This raises a dilemma: although individuality provides advantages, it also tends to reduce coordination. I will report on our experimental and theoretical efforts that use bacterial chemotaxis as a model system to understand how populations of cells reconciliate individuality with group behavior during collective migration, and how that leads to adaptation of phenotypic diversity without involving  environment-dependent gene regulation or mutations.

This work was supported by NIGMS awards R01GM138533, R01GM106189, and R35GM158058