FIG 4.

Microcolony formation occurs via cell cluster migration and fusion. Confocal laser scanning micrographs of Acinetobacter sp. C6 grown in benzoate minimal medium after 4, 10, 30, 45, 58, and 72 h indicate the formation and spatial organization of the cell clusters and their self-organized migration and fusion process. Individual cell clusters are numbered. The medium flow direction is indicated by an arrow. The individual micrographs are snapshots from a time series recording, which is available as Movie S4 in the supplemental material.