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Phenotypic Heterogeneity and the Evolution of Bacteria
Most bacteria live in colonies, where they often express different cell types. The ecological significance of these cell types and their evolutionary origin are often unknown. Here, we study the evolution of cell differentiation in the context of surface colonization. We particularly focus on the evolution of a 'sticky' cell type that is required for surface attachment, but is costly to express. van Gestel et al.
Image Credit: van Gestel et al.
Citation: (2016) PLoS Computational Biology Issue Image | Vol. 12(2) February 2016. PLoS Comput Biol 12(2): ev12.i02. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pcbi.v12.i02
Published: February 29, 2016
Copyright: © 2016 van Gestel et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Most bacteria live in colonies, where they often express different cell types. The ecological significance of these cell types and their evolutionary origin are often unknown. Here, we study the evolution of cell differentiation in the context of surface colonization. We particularly focus on the evolution of a 'sticky' cell type that is required for surface attachment, but is costly to express. van Gestel et al.
Image Credit: van Gestel et al.