MicrobeWorld

Why should an organism kill itself when it could be having offspring? Now, researchers have shown that in bacteria, suicide can be worthwhile—and has no major downside. Scientists compared two strains of Escherichia coli bacteria, one that self-destructs when infected with a lethal virus and one that doesn’t.

An infected bacterium not only dies but also serves as an incubator for some 300 new virus particles, unless it kills itself first. When the researchers seeded a batch of the suicidal bacteria with the virus, the bacteria thrived, they report online today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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