Bet hedging or not? A guide to proper classification of microbial survival strategies

Bet hedging or not? A guide to proper classification of microbial survival strategies.

Bacteria have developed an impressive ability to survive and propagate in highly diverse and changing environments by evolving phenotypic heterogeneity. Phenotypic heterogeneity ensures that a subpopulation is well prepared for environmental changes. The expression bet hedging is commonly (but often incorrectly) used by molecular biologists to describe any observed phenotypic heterogeneity. In ...

A guide to proper classification of microbial survival strategies

Delayed bet-hedging resilience strategies under environmental fluctuations.

Many biological populations, such as bacterial colonies, have developed through evolution a protection mechanism, called bet hedging, to increase their probability of survival under stressful environmental fluctuation. In this context, the concept of preadaptation refers to a common type of bet-hedging protection strategy in which a relatively small number of individuals in a population stochas...

What is bet-hedging, really?

Bet Hedging against Demographic Fluctuations.

Biological organisms have to cope with stochastic variations in both the external environment and the internal population dynamics. Theoretical studies and laboratory experiments suggest that population diversification could be an effective bet-hedging strategy for adaptation to varying environments. Here we show that bet hedging can also be effective against demographic fluctuations that pose ...