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Microbial bet-hedging: the power of being different
June 2015
June 2015
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Abstract
Bet-hedging is an evolutionary theory that describes how risk spreading can increase
fitness of a genotype in an unpredictably changing environment. To achieve risk spreading,
maladapted phenotypes develop within isogenic populations that may be fit for a future
environment. In recent years, various observations of microbial phenotypic heterogeneity
have been denoted as bet-hedging strategies, sometimes without sufficient evidence
to support this claim. Here, we discuss selected examples of microbial phenotypic
heterogeneity that so far do seem consistent with the evolutionary theory concept
of bet-hedging.