Microbes sense neighbors and change jobs to reduce competition, offering clue to coexistence

New research from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, published in Nature Microbiology, reveals that when microbes live together, they can sense one another and actively reduce competition by shifting toward different roles instead of all doing the same thing. It shows that microbes do not just respond to their environment, they respond to each other. In fact, the identity of neighboring microbes can have a stronger effect on protein production than the food source itself.