Selection on plastic adherence leads to hyper-multicellular strains and incidental virulence in the budding yeast
Luke I Ekdahl,
Juliana A Salcedo,
Matthew M Dungan
et al.
Abstract:Many disease-causing microbes are not obligate pathogens; rather, they are environmental microbes taking advantage of an ecological opportunity. The existence of microbes whose life cycle does not require a host and are not normally pathogenic, yet are well-suited to host exploitation, is an evolutionary puzzle. One hypothesis posits that selection in the environment may favor traits that incidentally lead to pathogenicity and virulence, or serve as pre-adaptations for survival in a host. An example of such a … Show more
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