Observing bacteria through the lens of social evolution

Carey D Nadell¹, Bonnie L Bassler²^,3 and Simon A Levin¹

¹Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA

²Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA

³Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 4000 Jones Bridge Road, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA

author email corresponding author email

Journal of Biology 2008, 7:27doi:10.1186/jbiol87


Published:	30 September 2008

Abstract

Explaining the evolution of cooperative behavior is a long-standing problem for which much theory has been developed. A recent paper in BMC Biology tests central elements of this theory by manipulating a simple bacterial experimental system. This approach is useful for assessing the principles of social evolution, but we argue that more effort must be invested in the inverse problem: using social evolution theory to understand the lives of bacteria.