Cooperation and Division of Labor

Is there cooperation and division of labor in diatoms? The tube-dwelling diatom Frustulia vulgaris expands its colony at the ends by stretching and reinforcing the tube. In doing so, the cells work together and perform different tasks.

Division of labor and cooperation require organization. A hypothesis regarding self-organization based on chemotaxis is presented.

A detailed explanation is provided over several pages, beginning here: https://diatoms.de/en/observation-of-diatoms/frustulia-vulgaris-i.html

Research on Frustulia vulgaris was submitted under the title “Observation of cooperation and division of labor in colony formation of the tube-dwelling diatom Frustulia vulgaris in culture" for the book:

Colonial Diatoms [DCHN, Volume in the series: Diatoms: Biology & Applications, series editor: Janice L. Pappas, in preparation]” by Mary Ann Tiffany (Editor), Ille C. Gebeshuber (Editor), Florian Zischka (202?).

Non-peer-reviewed preprint (May 2026):