SEATTLE – For Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax, nothing beats the inside of a warm human or animal host for triggering an intense spurt of rapid growth and reproductive activity.

Trade-offs among traits influencing fitness are predicted by life history theory because resources allocated to one function are unavailable to another. Here we examine the relationship between two ...

In biology, a spore is a reproductive structure, some of which are adapted for dispersal and surviving for extended periods of time in unfavorable conditions. The spores of seed plants, however, are ...

Researchers have discovered an ancient plant species whose reproductive biology captures the evolution from one to two spore sizes -- an essential transition to the success of the seed and flowering ...

To distinguish between these two models, we devised three approaches. First, we investigated maintenance of genetic variation in an AM fungus from one generation to the next during clonal reproduction ...

Researchers have shed light on a long-standing mystery concerning how fungal spores are released and dispersed. Knowing how far these spores can travel could now help protect cereal crops from one of ...