Factors that influence the caste ratio in a bacterial division of labour
Luis Alfredo Avitia Domínguez,
Zhengzhou Yu,
Varun Chopra
et al.
Abstract:Colonies of the bacteria Streptomyces coelicolor divide labour between cells that specialize on growth and sporulation and cells that specialize on antibiotic production. This division of labour arises due to costly chromosome deletions in the antibiotic overproducers. However, little is known about when and where these mutations occur or whether their frequency, which we liken to the caste ratio in social insects, is phenotypically plastic. To elucidate changes in the proportions of specialized cells (measure… Show more
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