Whether you are trying to improve your hand in a card game or improve your chances of surviving in a microbial soup, sometimes it pays to get rid of something.
A new theory, named for the card game Hearts and detailed in the March/April issue of the journal mBio, seeks to explain how some microbes simplify themselves by freeloading on their neighbors.
For example, common marine microbes, including Prochlorococcus, lack the ability to produce an enzyme thought to be the primary defense against hydrogen peroxide, a corrosive chemical formed when sunlight hits the surface of the ocean.
So how do these microbes survive? It appears they benefit from the work of their neighbors, which produce this enzyme and keep hydrogen peroxide levels under control.
The microbes in question benefit from giving up the ability to produce this enzyme because it requires iron, an element that can be in short supply in marine waters.
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