Freshwater bacteria are at the hub of biogeochemical cycles and control water quality in
lakes. Despite this, little is known about the identity and ecology of functionally significant …

Bacteria in the genus Brucella are important human and veterinary pathogens. The abortion
and infertility they cause in food animals produce economic hardships in areas where the …

Rhizobia are phylogenetically disparate α-and β-proteobacteria that have achieved the
environmentally essential function of fixing atmospheric nitrogen (N 2) in symbiosis with …

Abstract Type IV secretion (T4S) systems are ancestrally related to bacterial conjugation
machines. These systems assemble as a translocation channel, and often also as a surface …

Even before the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, the perception of evolutionary
change has been a tree-like pattern of diversification-with divergent branches spreading …

The mucosal surfaces and associated microbiota of fish are an important primary barrier and
provide the first line of defense against potential pathogens. An understanding of the skin …

In legume nodules, symbiosomes containing endosymbiotic rhizobial bacteria act as
temporary plant organelles that are responsible for nitrogen fixation, these bacteria develop …

Rhizobial bacteria colonize legume roots for the purpose of biological nitrogen fixation. A
complex series of events, coordinated by host and bacterial signal molecules, underlie the …

Soil bacteria that also form mutualistic symbioses in plants encounter two major levels of
selection. One occurs during adaptation to and survival in soil, and the other occurs in …

The branching order and coherence of the alphaproteobacterial orders have not been well
established, and not all studies have agreed that mitochondria arose from within the …