Cooperation exists across all scales of biological organization, from genetic elements to
complex human societies. Bacteria cooperate by secreting molecules that benefit all …

The field of microbial cooperation has grown enormously over the last decade, leading to
improved experimental techniques and a growing awareness of collective behavior in …

Bacteria often possess multiple siderophore-based iron uptake systems for scavenging this
vital resource from their environment. However, some siderophores seem redundant …

Bacterial cooperation can be disrupted by non-producers that can profit from public goods
without paying their production cost. A cheater can increase in frequency, exhausting the …

Cooperative behaviors provide a collective benefit, but are considered costly for the
individual. Here, we report that these costs vary dramatically in different contexts and have …

Public goods cooperation abounds in nature, occurring in organisms ranging from bacteria
to humans. Although previous research focused on the behavioral and ecological conditions …

Kin selection and multilevel selection are two major frameworks in evolutionary biology that
aim at explaining the evolution of social behaviors. However, the relationship between these …

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 …

High relatedness among interacting individuals has generally been considered a
precondition for the evolution of altruism. However, kin-selection theory also predicts the …

Cooperation and diversity abound in nature despite cooperators risking exploitation from
defectors and superior competitors displacing weaker ones. Understanding the persistence …