Edited by Bonnie L. Bassler, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, and approved February 16, 2021 (received for review July 8, 2020)Individual cells within a community often need to respond to changing environmental conditions at the population level. Accordingly, bacteria have evolved a large array of regulatory mechanisms that enable them to quickly reprogram behavior in a coordinated manner. Unraveling these mechanisms provides valuable information regarding collective behavior in the bacterial world. Herein, we show that by modulating the environmental pH levels, bacterial colonies...…Edited by Bonnie L. Bassler, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, and approved February 16, 2021 (received for review July 8, 2020)Individual cells within a community often need to respond to changing environmental conditions at the population level. Accordingly, bacteria have evolved a large array of regulatory mechanisms that enable them to quickly reprogram behavior in a coordinated manner. Unraveling these mechanisms provides valuable information regarding collective behavior in the bacterial world. Herein, we show that by modulating the environmental pH levels, bacterial colonies...WW…