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Cited by 670

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 7 of the 7 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Self-generated diversity produces “insurance effects” in biofilm communities

Open access
Boles, Blaise R., Thoendel, Matthew, Singh, Pradeep K.·2004·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Abstract

Diversity generally protects communities from unstable environmental conditions. This principle, known as the “insurance hypothesis,” has been tested in many different ecosystems. Here we show that the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa undergoes extensive genetic diversification during short-term growth in biofilm communities. The induced genetic changes are produced by a recA -dependent mechanism and affect multiple traits, including the behavior of the bacteria in biofilms. Some biofilm-derived variants exhibit an increased ability to disseminate, whereas others manifest accelerated biofilm formation. Furthermore, the presence of these functionally diverse bacteria increases the ability of biofilms to resist an environmental stress. These findings suggest that self-generated diversity in biofilms provides a form of biological insurance that can safeguard the community in the face of adverse conditions.

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Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.0407460101

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Metadata

Authors
Boles, B. R., Thoendel, M., & Singh, P. K.
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2004-11-16
Volume
101
Issue
47
Pages
16630-16635
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
OpenAlex
W2165400633
Cited by
670
References
7
FWCI
8.31
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Self-generated diversity produces “insurance effects” in biofilm communities. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1073/pnas.0407460101
The paper
Boles, B. R., Thoendel, M., & Singh, P. K. (2004). Self-generated diversity produces “insurance effects” in biofilm communities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0407460101

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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.