Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
Nat Rev Microbiol. 2016 Nov;14(11):716-723. doi: 10.1038/nrmicro.2016.111. Epub 2016 Sep 19.
The division of labour, whereby individuals within a group specialize in certain tasks, has long been appreciated as central to the evolution of complex biological societies. In recent years, several examples of division of labour in microorganisms have arisen, which suggests that this strategy may also be important in microbial species. In this Opinion article, we explore the set of conditions that define division of labour and propose that cooperation between different phenotypes is a defining feature of division of labour. Furthermore, we discuss how clarifying what constitutes division of labour highlights key evolutionary questions, including what form division of labour takes and why it is favoured by natural selection.
分工，即群体内的个体专门从事某些任务，长期以来一直被认为是复杂生物社会进化的核心。近年来，微生物中出现了几个分工的例子，这表明这种策略在微生物物种中也可能很重要。在这篇观点文章中，我们探讨了定义分工的一组条件，并提出不同表型之间的合作是分工的一个定义特征。此外，我们还讨论了阐明什么是分工如何突出关键的进化问题，包括分工采取什么形式以及为什么它受到自然选择的青睐。
