Using bacteria to study consistent variation in individual behavior

Abstract

Two recent observations in behavioral biology have sparked great interest and have already yielded many novel and intriguing insights. Bacteria appear to live lives of unforeseen behavioral complexity, and the consistent behavioral variation among individual animals is often not noise but turns out to be a highly relevant ecological and evolutionary feature in itself. Research covering these 2 phenomena has proceeded largely in isolation, and the rich behavioral lives of bacteria have not yet been studied with consistent interindividual behavioral differences in mind. Yet, the parallels between animal and bacterial behavior that are increasingly being uncovered, as well as the particular characteristics of bacteria, point toward a new approach in the study of consistent individual variation in behavior. Using bacteria can bring fruitful opportunities to the field and allows researchers to address questions that are very difficult to pursue using animal model systems. Notwithstanding a few challenges, bacteria can provide an alternative study system that may elucidate several evolutionary and ecological aspects of consistent individual behavioral variation.