Digest: Cooperation and life-history evolution help obligate parasites to circumvent host genetic deficiencies.

How do obligate parasites cope with hosts that lack genetic elements required for parasite replication? Gupta et. al. (2020) illustrate an experimental evolution system where lambda bacteriophages circumvent a defective gene network in their E. coli host (which initially made it impossible for them to replicate) through both intracellular cooperation and evolutionary changes in phage life-history traits. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.