Microbes influence the ecology and evolution of their hosts in a variety of ways, including the
formation of life-long beneficial or detrimental parasitic infections. Understanding the …

Many insect species maintain mutualistic relationships with endosymbiotic bacteria. In
contrast to their free-living relatives, horizontal gene transfer (HGT) has traditionally been …

Since the origin of the animal kingdom, marine animals have lived in association with
viruses, prokaryotes and unicellular eukaryotes, often as symbionts. This long and …

Across animals and plants, numerous metabolic and defensive adaptations are a direct
consequence of symbiotic associations with beneficial microbes. Explaining how these …

Theory suggests that symbionts can readily evolve more parasitic or mutualistic strategies
with respect to hosts. However, many symbionts have stable interactions with hosts that …

Symbiotic integration is a primary contributor to the centerpiece of evolution, genetic novelty.
Acquisition of foreign organisms or parts thereof, and potential subsequent assimilation and …

In this minireview, we address the trade-off between biological altruism (group adaptation
result-ing from the ability of an organism to improve the fitness of an associate at the …

Understanding how horizontally transmitted mutualisms are maintained is a major focus of
symbiosis research. 1, 2, 3, 4 Unlike vertical transmission, hosts that rely on horizontal …

Animal guts are often colonized by host-specialized bacterial species to the exclusion of
other transient microorganisms, but the genetic basis of colonization ability is largely …