Armed to the hilt: Study solves mystery behind bacteria’s extensive weaponry

These include both short-range weapons that require direct contact with neighbouring cells, and long-range weapons, such as toxins that are released into the environment. The team designed a series of experiments to determine under which conditions short- versus long-range weapons give a greater advantage. This included situations when the attacking bacteria were only present in low initial numbers and had to compete with a larger population of susceptible bacteria. According to the researchers, the results show that short- and long-range weapons perform differently depending on the competition scenario. In the model, cells using short-range weapons were able to successfully invade the community, whereas cells using long-range weapons were not.