Symbiotic
relationships with bacteria are prevalent. Arguably, in the course of
evolution, an association may get so close that the mutualistic partners merge
into a new, multicellular organism.
This
is the view of researchers from Research Group Experimental Ecology and
Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and their colleagues
at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany. The research team
studied bacteria that were deficient in the production of a certain amino acid
and therefore depended on a partner to provide the missing nutrient.
The
researchers found that bacterial strains that complemented each other's need by
providing the required amino acid showed a fitness increase of about 20%
relative to a non-deficient strain without partner.
For
further details see:
Posted by Tim Sandle
No comments:
Post a Comment
Pharmaceutical Microbiology Resources