The paper, published in Environmental Microbiology (IF = 5.5), for the first time explores the ecological context for evolution of quorum sensing (QS) diversity, where social communication is limited to members of the same quorum sensing type (pherotype). At the soil micro geographical scale three ecotypes were identified within Bacillus subtilis taxon. Each pherotype was strongly associated with a different ecotype, suggesting that it is usually not adaptive for one ecotype to “listen” to the signaling of another. Each ecotype, however, contained one or more minority pherotypes, which is consistent with a model of frequency dependent selection within ecotypes. In this model a low frequency pherotype increases through cheating the social interaction, yielding a cycling of pherotypes within each ecotype. This is the first analysis of pherotype diversity among closely related ecotypes and the paper has been already indicated in FEMS Microbiology Ecology as a very important contribution to understanding of the function of microbial diversity in soil.
COBISS.SI-ID: 4044408