Understanding Bacterial Bet hedging: Mechanisms, Theoretical Foundation, and Recent Developments
Summary
Bet hedging is a risk-spreading survival strat-
egy employed by organisms throughout the bi-
ological realm, to survive unpredictable envi-
ronments. Bacteria are no exception. By gen-
erating phenotypic diversity through gene ex-
pression noise within otherwise isogenic popu-
lations, bacteria can hedge their bets and en-
sure long-term survival. This gene expression
noise is gene-specific, and tends to increase as
bacterial growth rates decline. This shows the
complexity of bet hedging and moreover makes
bet hedging a competitively viable strategy.