Darwin recognized that natural selection could not favor a trait in one species solely for the
benefit of another species. The modern, selfish-gene view of the world suggests that …

Mutualisms are ubiquitous in nature despite the widely held view that they are unstable
interactions. Models predict that mutualists might often evolve into parasites, can abandon …

Mutualisms, beneficial interactions between species, are expected to be unstable because
delivery of benefit likely involves fitness costs and selection should favour partners that …

Diverse bacterial lineages form beneficial infections with eukaryotic hosts. The origins,
evolution, and breakdown of these mutualisms represent important evolutionary transitions …

At a glance, most species seem adapted to the environment in which they live. Yet species
relentlessly evolve, and populations within species evolve in different ways. Evolution, as it …

Microbes and microbiology are seldom encountered in philosophical accounts of the life
sciences. Although microbiology is a well-established science and microbes the basis of life …

Biological market theory has been used successfully to explain cooperative behavior in
many animal species. Microbes also engage in cooperative behaviors, both with hosts and …

Why do rhizobia expend resources on fixing N2 for the benefit of their host plant, when they
could use those resources for their own reproduction? We present a series of theoretical …

Over the last two decades a large number of experiments have been conducted in which two
conspecifics, mainly vertebrates, could obtain rewards through cooperation. At least three …

The capacity of beneficial microbes to compete for host infection—and the ability of hosts to
discriminate among them—introduces evolutionary conflict that is predicted to destabilize …