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A certain type of plant bacteria was shown to have memory in that the more experienced ones were better able to colonize plant roots. The descendants of those bacteria were also better at colonizing the plant roots than previous generations. Biofilms are a sheet over bacteria in colonies and they allow for cooperation between bacteria of the same or different species in a microbiome. Certain proteins may be responsible for memory formation. Epigenetic changes (modifications of DNA where the actual sequence does not change) may also be responsible for the memory, though there is no evidence for it in this particular case. The bacteria that are part of the colony have an advantage to free bacteria showing that bacteria can also have memory.

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