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

Microbiomes are transmitted between generations by a variety of different vertical and/or
horizontal modes, including vegetative reproduction (vertical), via female germ cells …

Most bacteria live in dense, spatially structured communities such as biofilms. The high
density allows cells to alter the local microenvironment, whereas the limited mobility can …

The evolution of multicellular life cycles is a central process in the course of the emergence
of multicellularity. The simplest multicellular life cycle is comprised of the growth of the …

Multicellularity has evolved several independent times over the past hundreds of millions of
years and given rise to a wide diversity of complex life. Recent studies have found that large …

Theories on the evolutionary origins of altruistic behavior have a long history and have
become a canonical part of the theory of evolution. Nevertheless, the mechanisms that allow …

Multicellular organisms potentially show a large degree of diversity in reproductive
strategies, producing offspring with varying sizes and compositions compared to their …

Genetic recombination is a major driving evolutionary force across the Tree of Life, but it
plays a special role in bacteria. In the absence of sexual reproduction, bacteria rely on …