While we have good understanding of bacterial metabolism at the population level, we know little about the metabolic behavior of individual cells: do single cells in clonal populations sometimes specialize on different metabolic pathways? Such metabolic specialization could be driven by stochastic gene expression and could provide individual cells with growth benefits of specialization. We meas...

Manipulation of host phenotype by parasites can require a collective effort from many individuals. The cost of manipulation may only be paid by the individuals actually inducing the manipulation, while its benefits are reaped by all. Here, we determine if there is genetic variation in manipulative effort among different clonal lineages of the trematode Curtuteria australis, and whether the deci...

Mutation is the engine that drives evolution and adaptation forward in that it generates the variation on which natural selection acts. Mutation is a random process that nevertheless occurs according to certain biases. Elucidating mutational biases and the way they vary across species and within genomes is crucial to understanding evolution and adaptation. Here we demonstrate that clonal pathog...

BACKGROUND The recovery of high performing transgenic lines in clonal crops is limited by the occurrence of somaclonal variation during the tissue culture phase of transformation. This is usually circumvented by developing large populations of transgenic lines, each derived from the first shoot to regenerate from each transformation event. This study investigates a new strategy of assessing mul...

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is one of the recognized plant species that considered most traditional natural supplements. Tissue culture an efficient method as fast and affordable in propagation. Few studies have discussed genetic impact such on ashwagandha plant. The aim this research was to identify stability micropropagated plantlets assess vitro-propagation somaclonal variability using ...

Abstract Variation of female and male strobilus production among clones over 4 consecutive years was estimated, genetic variance, heritability, correlation in were investigated the second-generation seed orchard Pinus thunbergii . This created with grafts selected according to volume growth their offspring. The strobili continued increase, whereas fluctuated throughout period. number highest ri...

Clonal diversity in asexual populations may be maintained if different clones are favoured under different environmental conditions. For aphids, parasitoids are an important variable of the biotic environment. To test whether parasitoids can mediate selection among host clones, we used experimental populations consisting of 10 clones of the peach-potato aphid, Myzus persicae, and allowed them t...

BACKGROUND Pneumococcal serotypes are represented by a varying number of clonal lineages with different genetic contents, potentially affecting invasiveness. However, genetic variation within the same genetic lineage may be larger than anticipated. METHODS A total of 715 invasive and carriage isolates from children in the same region and during the same period were compared using pulsed-field...

Streptococcus pneumoniae causes invasive infections, primarily at the extremes of life. A seven-valent conjugate vaccine (PCV7) is used to protect against invasive pneumococcal disease in children. Within three years of PCV7 introduction, we observed a fourfold increase in serotype 6C carriage, predominantly due to a single clone. We determined the whole-genome sequences of nineteen S. pneumoni...

The methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) clonal group known as ST239-MRSA-III is notable for its hybrid origin and for causing sustained hospital epidemics worldwide since the late 1970s. We studied the population structure of this MRSA clonal group using a sample of 111 isolates that were collected over 34 years from 29 countries. Genetic variation was assessed using typing metho...