Brave new world: recent evolution of an insect-transmitted pathogen

In their natural settings microbes seldom encounter conditions that are propitious for unrestricted growth. Rather, they must survive in environments where most of the time they are faced with limiting amounts of essential nutrients, stressful stimuli and the presence of other living organisms. Since the early 1980s, Dr. Kolter’s laboratroy has investigated many of these survival strategies using approaches from genetics, biochemistry and ecology.