Understanding Bacterial Bet hedging: Mechanisms, Theoretical Foundation, and Recent Developments

Abstract

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.