The Secret ‘Sex Lives’ of Bacteria: New Research Challenges Old Ideas About How Species Form

Monday, 27 January 2025

Bacterial and other microbes are thought to evolve primarily through binary fission, meaning asexual reproduction. Using a novel bioinformatic method for detecting gene transfer, researchers tested their hypothesis for how species emerge and are maintained. They found that bacteria evolve and form species more “sexually” than previously thought. 

multicolored micro organisms against a black background