The evolutionary ecology of spiteful bacteriocin production

Thesis

Understanding the conditions that favour the evolution and maintenance of spiteful bacteriocin production combines two important questions from the fields of social evolution and microbiology. Spiteful behaviours, though, initially thought to be rare represent an important class of interactions between bacteria through the production of bacteriocins. Bacteriocins can be considered spiteful as they are costly to produce (in many cases requiring lysis) and are costly to sensitive bacteria (i.e....

Expand abstract

Authors: Inglis, R; Robert Fredrik Inglis

• Publication date: 2010
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: Oxford University, UK
• Language: English
• Keywords: kin selection; social evolution; allelopathy; bacteriocin
• Subjects: Ecology (zoology); Microbiology; Evolution (zoology); Biology