Microbial experimental evolution uses controlled laboratory populations to study the
mechanisms of evolution. The molecular analysis of evolved populations enables empirical …

Plasmids play an important role in bacterial genome evolution by transferring genes
between lineages. Fitness costs associated with plasmid carriage are expected to be a …

Bet hedging—stochastic switching between phenotypic states,,—is a canonical example of
an evolutionary adaptation that facilitates persistence in the face of fluctuating environmental …

Cooperation is central to the emergence of multicellular life; however, the means by which
the earliest collectives (groups of cells) maintained integrity in the face of destructive …

Across the great diversity of life, there are many compelling examples of parallel and
convergent evolution—similar evolutionary changes arising in independently evolving …

The effects of co-evolution with lytic phage on bacterial virulence-related traits are largely
unknown. In this study we investigate the incidence of the mucoid phenotype of the …

Local adaptation of a species can affect community composition, yet the importance of local
adaptation compared with species presence per se is unknown. Here we determine how a …

The idea that bacteria are social is a popular concept with implications for understanding the
ecology and evolution of microbes. The view arises predominately from reasoning regarding …

The acquisition of plasmids is often accompanied by fitness costs such that compensatory
evolution is required to allow plasmid survival, but it is unclear whether compensatory …

Competitors are known to be important in governing the outcome of evolutionary
diversification during an adaptive radiation, but the precise mechanisms by which they exert …