SMBE Journals (Molecular Biology and Evolution and Genome Biology and Evolution) Further analysis of PifA and PifB revealed that they exhibit many of the characteristics of eukaryotic host-associated ...

One species of bacteria seems to get many of the perks of sexual reproduction without actually having sex, a new study finds. Different strains of bacteria called Mycobacterium smegmatis swap large, ...

Sexual reproduction is costly to organisms that depend on it, like humans. In contrast, bacteria reproduce by asexual reproduction, which is more efficient but doesn't allow genomic mixing, making ...

Why are most organisms sexual? The question of why most species reproduce sexually and others reproduce asexually has stymied biologists for years (particularly since asexual reproduction has many ...

Researchers have stumbled on a surprising aphrodisiac for a single-celled organism: a protein secreted by a bacterium. They suggest it’s the first time that bacteria have been found to have a hand in ...

Birds do it, and bees do it. Indeed, researchers estimate that over 99.9% of eukaryotes reproduce sexually. What, then, are the true costs and benefits of sex? Yet again, this simple example ...

For several decades now, biologists have been puzzling over sex. In some ways, it seems like a huge waste of effort. Sexual reproduction requires splitting a species into two sexes, only one of which ...