The bacterium Serratia plymuthica strain S13 was demonstrated to colonize various plant-associated microhabitats and to suppress damping-off diseases. The completed genome sequence has a size of 5.5 Mb, containing 4,957 putative protein-encoding regions, and will be used to identify genetic determinants enabling the bacterium to escort a plant's entire life cycle.

Replicator equations (RE) are among the basic tools in mathematical theory of selection and evolution. We develop a method for reducing a wide class of the RE, which in general are systems of differential equations in Banach space to " escort systems " of ODEs that in many cases can be explored analytically. The method has potential for different applications; some examples are given.

We show that thermodynamic uncertainties do not preserve their form if the underlying probability distribution is transformed into an escort one. Heisenberg’s relations, on the other hand, are not affected by such transformation. We conclude therefore that the former uncertainty cannot be as fundamental as the quantum one.

t Thii research was sponsored by a grant from the Georg ia Fores try Commiss ion . The assistance and cooneration of Mead Coated Board, Columbus, GA, and the Armuchee Ranger District, USDA Forest Service, LaFayette, GA, are gratefully recognized. Use of trade names is for reader’s information and does not constitute official endorsement or approval by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the e...