Highlights•Nodulation of legumes is encoded by at least three genetic rhizobial
strategies.•The 'nod'strategy has been the most successful evolutionarily.•Evolution of nod …

Models describing the biotic drivers that create and maintain biological diversity within
trophic levels have focused primarily on negative interactions (ie competition), leaving …

Mutualisms play a key role in most ecosystems, yet the mechanisms that prevent
overexploitation of the mutualistic relationship are still poorly understood. In the mutualism …

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 …

Human activities have altered the global nitrogen (N) cycle, and as a result, elevated N
inputs are causing profound ecological changes in diverse ecosystems. The evolutionary …

The various behavioral disciplines model human behavior in distinct and incompatible ways.
Yet, recent theoretical and empirical developments have created the conditions for …

While invasive plant species primarily occur in disturbed, high-resource environments, many
species have invaded ecosystems characterized by low nutrient, water, and light availability …

The root systems of most agronomic crops are colonized by diverse assemblages of
arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), varying in the functional benefits (eg nutrient transfer …

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 …