ReviewFrontiers in microbiology2016
Understanding Microbial Divisions of Labor.
Review in Frontiers in microbiology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed.
- Interactions of PGPR from the phylum bacillota with native rhizosphere microbiota: current insights and future perspectives.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2026Review
- Article
- Decoding the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of bacterial virulence gene expression using single-cell approaches.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Unravelling the Potential of Fungal Division of Labour in the Laccase ProducerJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Dissecting microbial communities with single-cell transcriptome analysis.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Review
- Tailocin-Mediated Interactions Among Soft Rot Pectobacteriaceae.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Division of labour as key driver of social evolution.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Group size and labour demands determine division of labour as a consequence of demographic stochasticity.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- The evolution of division of labour: preconditions and evolutionary feedback.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Strength in diversity: unlocking the full potential of engineered living materials with multistrain collaboration.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- Ecological design of high-performance synthetic microbial communities: from theoretical foundations to functional optimization.ISME communications · 2025Review
- Specialized Listeria monocytogenes produce tailocins to provide a population-level competitive growth advantage.Nature microbiology · 2024Article
- Plasmid-free cheater cells commonly evolve during laboratory growth.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
- Minorities drive growth resumption in cross-feeding microbial communities.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Regulation of type VI secretion systems at the transcriptional, posttranscriptional and posttranslational level.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2023Review
- A toxin-mediated policing system ineLife · 2023Article
- Article
- Ecological drivers of division of labour in Streptomyces.Current opinion in microbiology · 2022Review
- Review
- Mutational meltdown of putative microbial altruists in Streptomyces coelicolor colonies.Nature communications · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Divisions of labor are ubiquitous in nature and can be found at nearly every level of biological organization, from the individuals of a shared society to the cells of a single multicellular organism. Many different types of microbes have also evolved a division of labor among its colony members. Here we review several examples of microbial divisions of labor, including cases from both multicellular and unicellular microbes. We first discuss evolutionary arguments, derived from kin selection, that allow divisions of labor to be maintained in the face of non-cooperative cheater cells. Next we examine the widespread natural variation within species in their expression of divisions of labor and compare this to the idea of optimal caste ratios in social insects. We highlight gaps in our understanding of microbial caste ratios and argue for a shift in emphasis from understanding the maintenance of divisions of labor, generally, to instead focusing on its specific ecological benefits for microbial genotypes and colonies. Thus, in addition to the canonical divisions of labor between, e.g., reproductive and vegetative tasks, we may also anticipate divisions of labor to evolve to reduce the costly production of secondary metabolites or secreted enzymes, ideas we consider in the context of streptomycetes. The study of microbial divisions of labor offers opportunities for new experimental and molecular insights across both well-studied and novel model systems.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.