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Comment
. 2023 Oct 24;8(5):e0031223.
doi: 10.1128/msphere.00312-23. Epub 2023 Sep 7.

mSphere of Influence: If virulence is energetically costly, how can it be maintained?

Kimberly Michele Davis  1
Affiliations
Comment

mSphere of Influence: If virulence is energetically costly, how can it be maintained?

Kimberly Michele Davis. mSphere. .

Abstract

Kimberly Davis works in the field of bacterial pathogenesis and studies heterogeneity in bacterial populations within host tissues. In this mSphere of Influence article, she reflects on how the paper "Stabilization of cooperative virulence by the expression of an avirulent phenotype" by M. Diard et al. (M. Diard et al., Nature 494:353-6, 2013, DOI: 10.1038/nature11913) impacted the way she thinks about bacterial population dynamics and the costs and benefits of producing virulence factors during infection.

Keywords: bacterial cooperation; heterogeneity; population dynamics; virulence factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Comment on

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