All social organisms experience dilemmas between cooperators performing group-
beneficial actions and cheats selfishly exploiting these actions. Although bacteria have …

Divisions of labor are ubiquitous in nature and can be found at nearly every level of
biological organization, from the individuals of a shared society to the cells of a single …

Plant-associated environments harbor a huge number of diverse bacteria that compete
and/or cooperate for the occupation of the most nutrient-rich ecological niches. Motility, a …

Diverse forms of kin discrimination, broadly defined as alteration of social behavior as a
function of genetic relatedness among interactants, are common among social organisms …

B acillus subtilis is a widespread and diverse bacterium t exhibits a remarkable intraspecific
diversity of the ComQXPA quorum‐sensing (QS) system. This manifests in the existence of …

Many bacterial species use flagella for self-propulsion in aqueous media. In the soil, which
is a complex and structured environment, water is found in microscopic channels where …

The evolution of multicellular life requires cooperation among cells, which can be
undermined by intra-group selection for selfishness. Theory predicts that selection to avoid …

The outcomes of interspecific and intraspecific ecological interactions can be considered to
fall along continua from cooperative (mutually beneficial) to antagonistic (detrimental to one …

Multicellular organisms that form by aggregation of cells arguably do not achieve high levels
of complexity. Conflict among the cells is a widely accepted explanation for this, but an …

The spatial distribution of potential interactants is critical to social evolution in all cooperative
organisms. Yet the biogeography of microbial kin discrimination at the scales most relevant …