Matters Microbial #129: Microbes Reveal How Evolution Might Replay May 5, 2026

Today Dr. Michael Travisano, Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the College of Biological Sciences of the University of Minnesota, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss fascinating work from his lab group exploring evolutionary questions from a microbial perspective.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Michael Travisano

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Links for this episode

• Here is the link to the article we discussed during the podcast, authored by Dr. Travisano and Dr. Rainey.
• An overview of the concept of adaptive radiation.
• The ecological/evolutionary concept of "cheating" which applies to the mat forming bacteria discussed in this podcast.
• A link to an article by Dr. Jo Handelsman and colleagues about THOR, a simple microbial community that has shows great functional diversity.
• A wonderful essay about Dr. Rich Lenski's role in the LTEE.
• An essay from "Small Things Considered" describing "rewinding" evolution using microbial systems.
• A wonderful book by Stephen Jay Gould, "Wonderful Life" about evolution.
• Another book well worth your attention: "Chance and Necessity" by Jacques Monod.
• An article about the challenges of multicellularity in bacteria.
• The wonderful short video example of "snowflake yeast" evolving within days.
• A link to another #MattersMicrobial podcast by Dr Will Ratcliff, about "snowflake yeast."
• An article by Dr. Travisano and colleagues describing conflict and cooperation in microbial societies discussed on this podcast.
• An article by Dr. Travisano and colleagues about the evolution of "snowflake yeast," discussed on this podcast.
• An article by Dr. Travisano and colleagues discussing the role of other microbes in the development of multicellularity, discussed on this podcast.
• An article by Dr. Travisano and colleagues, on the repeatability of microbial adaptive evolution discussed on this podcast.
• A list of references authored by Dr. Travisano and colleagues.
• Dr. Travisano's faculty website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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