Bacteria Organize According to Rich-Get-Richer Principle
Scientists have noticed that bacteria often organize according to the rich-get-richer pattern by collecting together in biofilms. This research can dramatically affect how bacterial infections that are immune to particular antibiotics are treated. When bacteria gather in these biofilms, they behave differently, change their gene expression, and are more resistant to antibiotics since their combined matrix of proteins, DNA, and polysaccharides protect them all. When bacteria (Pseudomonas aeuginosa) move over a surface, they leave a trail of Psl, a type of polysaccharide, which influences the behavior of other bacteria. The later bacteria follow these trails of Psl causing a positive feedback that gathers bacteria together in biofilms. Researchers have noticed that within these biofilms, a small amount of bacteria have the best access to most of the communally produced polysaccharides, much similar to Zipf’s Law or the rich-get-richer phenomenon. This research suggests that a new treatment to control bacterial communities may be similar to how economies are regulated and by using incentives, communications, and punishment to control the bacterial communities.
This relates to the rich-get-richer phenomenon that we have studied and applied to web page links on the internet in class. In addition, the actions of the bacteria when they detect Psl and blindly follow the path are somewhat similar to how people act and cause information cascades. Just as these bacteria follow a path based on what previous bacteria have done, people also make decision based on previous people’s decisions, which can cause them to ignore the information they retrieved themselves leading to an information cascade.
https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2013/05/bacteria-organize-according-to-rich-get-richer-principle