Synchronization of Electrical Oscillations in the Organization of Social Life of Microorganisms

Many microorganisms form communities whose members coordinate their actions in solving common problems. One form of such communities is a biofilm. In the experiments on recovering the integrity by a damaged biofilm, data were obtained on oscillators in relatively quiet and active loci of the film formed by cyanobacteria Oscillatoria terebriformis. To study the interaction between different parts of the biofilm, field potentials were recorded simultaneously from two loci. The presence of a functional connection between different zones of the biofilm was revealed by calculation of the cross-correlation coefficients. The level of synchronization of field potentials between areas was determined using the coefficients of frequency and frequency-time coherence. In the loci of increased and decreased activity, different values of the frequency and amplitude of electrical oscillations were revealed. A high level of synchronization was registered between the active zones, which persisted for several seconds. The registered synchronization of oscillations between the active and quiet loci was considerably lower. The results that characterize the organization of the process of problem solving by a cyanobacterial film as an integral unit can serve as a model of the processes of organization of other biosocial structures for solving problems.

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