Microbial Evolution

Microbes are everywhere, living inside and around us, often within complex and dynamic communities that underpin the health of our bodies and of natural ecosystems. The need to understand and predict microbial evolutionary dynamics has never been more urgent. The rise of antimicrobial resistance is a crisis caused by the evolutionary adaptation of microbes to our use of antibiotics. How microbes respond to global change will shape critical biogeochemical processes in oceans and soils. Solutions to these and many other emerging issues will require an in-depth understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of microbial communities, to enable us to predict and manage their responses to selective pressures and to design robust biotechnological solutions. This collection will highlight microbial evolution research papers from the Microbiology archives and feature new primary research and review articles arising from the “Understanding and Predicting Microbial Evolutionary Dynamics” Focus Meeting held in Manchester 22-23 November 2022. 

This collection is open for new submissions from all researchers across the full breadth of the microbial evolution field and is guest edited by Michael Brockhurst (University of Manchester, UK), Jenna Gallie (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany), James Hall (University of Liverpool, UK), and Stineke Van Houte (University of Exeter, UK).

The collection will be extended to also encompass new articles arising from Microbial Ecology and Evolution Hub-based Conference 2024 (MEEhubs2024), and submissions related to this meeting will be guest edited by Wolfram Moebius (University of Exeter, UK).

Image credit: Science Photo Library/KuLouKu