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In evolution, context is everything: Bacteria with neighbors evolve to rebuff viruses in a different way.
New studies help to explain how microbes in the gut can shape a host’s fear responses.
Cells in symbiotic partnership, sometimes nested one within the other and functioning like organelles, can borrow from their host’s genes to complete their own metabolic pathways.
Genetically identical bacteria should all be the same, but in fact, the cells are stubbornly varied individuals.
In the “underground economy” for soil nutrients, fungi strike hard bargains and punish plants that won’t meet their price.
Contrary to popular belief, bacteria have organelles too. Scientists are now studying them for insights into how complex cells evolved.
New work raises the estimated diversity of viruses in the seas more than twelvefold and lays the groundwork for a better understanding of their impact on global nutrient cycles.
In harsh ecosystems around the world, microbiologists are finding evidence that “microbial seed banks” protect biodiversity from changing conditions.
New studies revise ideas about the symbiosis that gave mitochondria to cells and about whether the last common ancestor of all eukaryotes was one cell or many.