ABSTRACT
The global collection of cellular organisms falls into two large groups: eukaryotes and prokaryotes. The prokaryotes comprise the blue-green algae and the bacteria. As a group, the bacteria have not been well studied with regard to their aggregative properties. Because they serve, however, as models for a great many biological phenomena, it is expected that there will be many advances in the study of bacterial aggregation before long. Already, new systems are being reported while old systems are receiving renewed attention. An example of a fairly old system being reexamined is mating-aggregate formation during conjugation in Escherichia coli, undoubtedly the best studied cell. Other systems include star formation in Pseudornonas and other bacteria, pellicle formation in fimbriate bacteria, agglutination associated with transformation competence in Streptococcus and Bacillus, plaque formation and agglutination in Streptococcus mutans, aggregation in myxo-bacteria, and aggregate formation in Streptococcus faecalis. The chapter examines each of these bacterial aggregation systems in some detail.
