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Updated: Jul 5, 2026

Monitoring Intraspecies Competition in a Bacterial Cell Population by Cocultivation of Fluorescently Labelled Strains
Published on: January 18, 2014
Ecology and genomics of Bacillus subtilis
Ashlee M Earl1, Richard Losick, Roberto Kolter
1Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Abstract:
Bacillus subtilis is a remarkably diverse bacterial species that is capable of growth within many environments. Recent microarray-based comparative genomic analyses have revealed that members of this species also exhibit considerable genomic diversity. The identification of strain-specific genes might explain how B. subtilis has become so broadly adapted. The goal of identifying ecologically adaptive genes could soon be realized with the imminent release of several new B. subtilis genome sequences. As we embark upon this exciting new era of B. subtilis comparative genomics we review what is currently known about the ecology and evolution of this species.
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