Virtually all plants and animals, including humans, are home to symbiotic microorganisms.
Symbiotic interactions can be neutral, harmful or have beneficial effects on the host …

Iron is an essential trace element for most organisms. A common way for bacteria to acquire
this nutrient is through the secretion of siderophores, which are secondary metabolites that …

Bacteria often live within matrix-embedded communities, termed biofilms, which are now
understood to be a major mode of microbial life. The study of biofilms has revealed their vast …

Standard virulence evolution theory assumes that virulence factors are maintained because
they aid parasitic exploitation, increasing growth within and/or transmission between hosts …

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

Microbial communities are increasingly utilized in biotechnology. Efficiency and productivity
in many of these applications depends on the presence of cooperative interactions between …

Bacterial populations frequently act as a collective by secreting a wide range of compounds
necessary for cell–cell communication, host colonization and virulence. How such …

Microbes have the potential to be highly cooperative organisms. The archetype of microbial
cooperation is often considered to be the secretion of siderophores, molecules scavenging …

Antibiotics are losing efficacy due to the rapid evolution and spread of resistance.
Treatments targeting bacterial virulence factors have been considered as alternatives …

Bacteria often possess multiple siderophore-based iron uptake systems for scavenging this
vital resource from their environment. However, some siderophores seem redundant …