what are these bacteria telling us?

Inteterdepence and cooperation, not isolation and selfishness, are the key to survival, to the degree that we may need to discard the notion of separate species, report two theoretical biologists, N. Goldenfeld and C. Woese. ScienceWeek observes that their Nature article concludes:

…the convergence of fresh theoretical ideas in evolution and thecoming avalanche of genomic data will profoundly alter our understanding of the biosphere -- and is likely to lead to revision of concepts such as species, organism and evolution.… The place to start is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), the non-genealogical transfer of genetic material from one organism to another -- such as from one bacterium to another or from viruses to bacteria. Among microbes, HGT is pervasive and powerful -- for example, in accelerating the spread of antibiotic resistance. Owing to HGT, it is not a good approximation to regard microbes as organisms dominated by individual characteristics. In fact, their communications by genetic or quorum-sensing channels indicate that microbial behaviour must be understood as predominantly cooperative….In the wild, microbes form communities, invade biochemical niches and partake in biogeochemical cycles. The available studies strongly indicate that microbes absorb and discard genes as needed, in response to their environment. Rather than discrete genomes, we see a continuum of genomic possibilities, which casts doubt on the validity of the concept of a "species" when extended into the microbial realm.… Recent work suggests that viruses are an important repository and memory of a community's genetic information, contributing to the system's evolutionary dynamics and stability. [...]