Biodiversity alters strategies of bacterial evolution

a paper published in Nature found that when a bacterial species resides in even a very simple ecological community — one that includes just a few other kinds of microbes — it evolves very different defense strategies against a predatory bacteriophage virus than it does when it’s left alone with the phage. The research is expanding these ideas into the context of the microbiome, where bacteria exist alongside loads of other species. The finding not only elevates the value of biodiversity as an evolutionary factor in its own right, but suggests that some earlier conclusions about the behaviors and capabilities of microorganisms, drawn from laboratory studies of species in isolation, may be seriously incomplete. It also sounds a note of caution about some contemplated strategies for beating drug resistance in bacteria.

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