title: Observing bacteria through the lens of social evolution.
abstract: Explaining the evolution of cooperative behavior is a long-standing problem for which much theory has been developed. A recent paper in BMC Biology tests central elements of this theory by manipulating a simple bacterial experimental system. This approach is useful for assessing the principles of social evolution, but we argue that more effort must be invested in the inverse problem: using social evolution theory to understand the lives of bacteria.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Carey D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Nadell
authors.forename: Bonnie L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Bassler
authors.forename: Simon A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Levin
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D018441:Biofilms; D005075:Biological Evolution; D008954:Models, Biological; D053038:Quorum Sensing