The Evolution of Bacterial Warfare

Project Information

MicroWars

Grant agreement ID: 787932

DOI

10.3030/787932

Project closed

EC signature date 18 May 2018

Start date 1 October 2018

End date 30 September 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 2 750 137,00

EU contribution

€ 2 750 137,00

Coordinated by

THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
United Kingdom

CORDIS provides links to public deliverables and publications of HORIZON projects.

Links to deliverables and publications from FP7 projects, as well as links to some specific result types such as dataset and software, are dynamically retrieved from OpenAIRE .

Publications

Peer reviewed articles (35)

Bacteria solve the problem of crowding by moving slowly

Author(s): O. J. Meacock, A. Doostmohammadi, K. R. Foster, J. M. Yeomans, W. M. Durham
Published in: Nature Physics, Issue 17/2, 2021, Page(s) 205-210, ISSN 1745-2473
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-01070-6

Metabolic ecology of microbiomes: Nutrient competition, host benefits, and community engineering

Author(s): Erik Bakkeren, Vit Piskovsky, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: Cell Host & Microbe, Issue 33, 2026, Page(s) 790-807, ISSN 1931-3128
Publisher: Cell Press
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2025.05.013

Host control and the evolution of cooperation in host microbiomes

Author(s): Connor Sharp, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: Nature Communications, Issue 13, 2022, ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30971-8

The evolution of strategy in bacterial warfare via the regulation of bacteriocins and antibiotics

Author(s): Rene Niehus, Nuno M Oliveira, Aming Li, Alexander G Fletcher, Kevin R Foster
Published in: eLife, Issue 10, 2023, ISSN 2050-084X
Publisher: eLife Sciences Publications
DOI: 10.7554/elife.69756

Individual bacterial cells can use spatial sensing of chemical gradients to direct chemotaxis on surfaces

Author(s): James H. R. Wheeler, Kevin R. Foster, William M. Durham
Published in: Nature Microbiology, Issue 9, 2024, Page(s) 2308-2322, ISSN 2058-5276
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
DOI: 10.1038/s41564-024-01729-3

The evolution of tit-for-tat in bacteria via the type VI secretion system.

Author(s): William P. J. Smith; Maj Brodmann; Kevin R. Foster; Laurie E. Comstock; Marek Basler; Yohan Davit; Daniel Unterweger
Published in: Nature Communications, Issue 1, 2020, ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19017-z

Bacterial warfare is associated with virulence and antimicrobial resistance

Author(s): Connor Sharp, Kevin Foster
Published in: Nature communications, 2026, ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1101/2024.11.06.622277

Horizontal gene transfer of molecular weapons can reshape bacterial competition

Author(s): Elisa T. Granato, Jacob D. Palmer, Christian Kirk, Connor Sharp, George Shillcock, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: PLOS Biology, Issue 23, 2025, Page(s) e3003095, ISSN 1545-7885
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003095

The evolution of spectrum in antibiotics and bacteriocins

Author(s): Jacob D. Palmer, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Issue 119, 2022, ISSN 0027-8424
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2205407119

Ecological rules for the assembly of microbiome communities

Author(s): Katharine Z. Coyte, Chitong Rao, Seth Rakoff-Nahoum, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: PLOS Biology, Issue 19/2, 2021, Page(s) e3001116, ISSN 1545-7885
Publisher: PLoS
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001116

Diverse phage communities are maintained stably on a clonal bacterial host

Author(s): Nora C. Pyenson, Asher Leeks, Odera Nweke, Joshua E. Goldford, Jonas Schluter, Paul E. Turner, Kevin R. Foster, Alvaro Sanchez
Published in: Science, Issue 386, 2024, Page(s) 1294-1300, ISSN 0036-8075
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
DOI: 10.1126/science.adk1183

Host control of the microbiome: Mechanisms, evolution, and disease

Author(s): Jacob Wilde, Emma Slack, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: Science, Issue 385, 2024, ISSN 0036-8075
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
DOI: 10.1126/science.adi3338

Microbiome diversity protects against pathogens by nutrient blocking

Author(s): Frances Spragge, Erik Bakkeren, Martin T. Jahn, Elizete B. N. Araujo, Claire F. Pearson, Xuedan Wang, Louise Pankhurst, Olivier Cunrath, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: Science, Issue 382, 2024, ISSN 0036-8075
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
DOI: 10.1126/science.adj3502

Reprogrammed SimCells for Antimicrobial Therapy

Author(s): Yun Dong, Xianglin Ji, Tao Dong, Yun Wang, Erik Bakkeren, Kevin R Foster, Wei E. Huang
Published in: PNAS, 2026, ISSN 0027-8424
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
DOI: 10.1101/2025.11.15.688600

Collective protection against the type VI secretion system in bacteria

Author(s): Elisa T Granato, William P J Smith, Kevin R Foster
Published in: The ISME Journal, Issue 17, 2024, Page(s) 1052-1062, ISSN 1751-7362
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41396-023-01401-4

Bacterial defences: mechanisms, evolution and antimicrobial resistance

Author(s): Smith, WPJ; Wucher, BR; Nadell, CD; Foster, KR
Published in: Smith, W P J, Wucher, B R, Nadell, C D & Foster, K R 2023, 'Bacterial defences: mechanisms, evolution and antimicrobial resistance', Nature Reviews Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-023-00877-3, Issue 1, 2023, ISSN 1740-1534
Publisher: nature reviews microbiology

The evolution of short- and long-range weapons for bacterial competition

Author(s): Sean C. Booth, William P. J. Smith, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: Nature Ecology & Evolution, Issue 7, 2023, Page(s) 2080-2091, ISSN 2397-334X
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02234-2

Strain displacement in microbiomes via ecological competition

Author(s): Erik Bakkeren, Vit Piskovsky, Megan N. Y. Lee, Martin T. Jahn, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: Nature Microbiology, Issue 10, 2025, Page(s) 3122-3135, ISSN 2058-5276
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
DOI: 10.1038/s41564-025-02162-w

Bacterial species rarely work together

Author(s): Jacob D. Palmer, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: Science, Issue 376, 2024, Page(s) 581-582, ISSN 0036-8075
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
DOI: 10.1126/science.abn5093

The Evolution of Mass Cell Suicide in Bacterial Warfare

Author(s): Elisa T. Granato, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: Current Biology, 2020, ISSN 0960-9822
Publisher: Cell Press
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.05.007

Biofilm Bacteria Use Stress Responses to Detect and Respond to Competitors

Author(s): Bram Lories, Stefanie Roberfroid, Lise Dieltjens, David De Coster, Kevin R. Foster, Hans P. Steenackers
Published in: Current Biology, Issue 30/7, 2020, Page(s) 1231-1244.e4, ISSN 0960-9822
Publisher: Cell Press
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.01.065

Bacteriophages benefit from generalized transduction

Author(s): Alfred Fillol-Salom, Ahlam Alsaadi, Jorge A. Moura de Sousa, Li Zhong, Kevin R. Foster, Eduardo P. C. Rocha, José R. Penadés, Hanne Ingmer, Jakob Haaber
Published in: PLOS Pathogens, Issue 15/7, 2019, Page(s) e1007888, ISSN 1553-7374
Publisher: PloS
DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1007888

The Evolution and Ecology of Bacterial Warfare

Author(s): Elisa T. Granato, Thomas A. Meiller-Legrand, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: Current Biology, Issue 29/11, 2019, Page(s) R521-R537, ISSN 0960-9822
Publisher: Cell Press
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.024

The evolution of the type VI secretion system as a disintegration weapon

Author(s): William P. J. Smith, Andrea Vettiger, Julius Winter, Till Ryser, Laurie E. Comstock, Marek Basler, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: PLOS Biology, Issue 18/5, 2020, Page(s) e3000720, ISSN 1545-7885
Publisher: PLoS
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000720

Inhibiting bacterial cooperation is an evolutionarily robust anti-biofilm strategy

Author(s): Lise Dieltjens, Kenny Appermans, Maries Lissens, Bram Lories, Wook Kim, Erik V. Van der Eycken, Kevin R. Foster, Hans P. Steenackers
Published in: Nature Communications, Issue 11/1, 2020, ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13660-x

<scp>3D</scp> printing of microbial communities: A new platform for understanding and engineering microbiomes

Author(s): Ravinash Krishna Kumar, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: Microbial Biotechnology, Issue 16, 2025, Page(s) 489-493, ISSN 1751-7915
Publisher: Wiley
DOI: 10.1111/1751-7915.14168

Cell motility empowers bacterial contact weapons

Author(s): Sean C Booth, Oliver J Meacock, Kevin R Foster
Published in: The ISME Journal, Issue 18, 2024, ISSN 1751-7362
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1093/ismejo/wrae141

Reconfigurable Microfluidic Circuits for Isolating and Retrieving Cells of Interest

Author(s): Cyril Deroy, James H. R. Wheeler, Agata N. Rumianek, Peter R. Cook, William M. Durham, Kevin R. Foster, Edmond J. Walsh
Published in: ACS Applied Materials &amp; Interfaces, Issue 14, 2023, Page(s) 25209-25219, ISSN 1944-8244
Publisher: American Chemical Society
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c07177

Phenotypic heterogeneity in the bacterial oxidative stress response is driven by cell-cell interactions

Author(s): Divya Choudhary, Valentine Lagage, Kevin R. Foster, Stephan Uphoff
Published in: Cell Reports, Issue 42, 2026, Page(s) 112168, ISSN 2211-1247
Publisher: Cell Press
DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112168

Time delays modulate the stability of complex ecosystems

Author(s): Yuguang Yang, Kevin R. Foster, Katharine Z. Coyte, Aming Li
Published in: Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution, Issue 7, 2023, Page(s) 1610-1619, ISSN 2397-334X
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02158-x

Pleiotropic constraints promote the evolution of cooperation in cellular groups

Author(s): Michael A. Bentley, Christian A. Yates, Jotun Hein, Gail M. Preston, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: PLOS Biology, Issue 20, 2023, Page(s) e3001626, ISSN 1545-7885
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001626

Reactivity of complex communities can be more important than stability

Author(s): Yuguang Yang, Katharine Z. Coyte, Kevin R. Foster, Aming Li
Published in: Nature Communications, Issue 14, 2023, ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42580-0

Enforcement is central to the evolution of cooperation

Author(s): J. Arvid Ågren, Nicholas G. Davies, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution, Issue 3, 2022, Page(s) 1018-1029, ISSN 2397-334X
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-019-0907-1

Suicidal chemotaxis in bacteria

Author(s): Nuno M. Oliveira, James H. R. Wheeler, Cyril Deroy, Sean C. Booth, Edmond J. Walsh, William M. Durham, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: Nature communications, 2026, ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1101/2021.12.21.473623

Droplet printing reveals the importance of micron-scale structure for bacterial ecology

Author(s): Ravinash Krishna Kumar, Thomas A. Meiller-Legrand, Alessandro Alcinesio, Diego Gonzalez, Despoina A. I. Mavridou, Oliver J. Meacock, William P. J. Smith, Linna Zhou, Wook Kim, Gökçe Su Pulcu, Hagan Bayley, Kevin R. Foster
Published in: Nature Communications, Issue 12/1, 2021, ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-20996-w