  Many microbes live in habitats below their optimum temperature. Retention of
metabolic heat by aggregation or insulation would boost growth. Generation of
excess metabolic heat may also provide benefit. A cell that makes excess
metabolic heat pays the cost of production, whereas the benefit may be shared
by neighbors within a zone of local heat capture. Metabolic heat as a shareable
public good raises interesting questions about conflict and cooperation of heat
production and capture. Metabolic heat may also be deployed as a weapon.
Species with greater thermotolerance gain by raising local temperature to
outcompete less thermotolerant taxa. Metabolic heat may provide defense against
bacteriophage attack, by analogy with fever in vertebrates. This article
outlines the theory of metabolic heat in microbial conflict and cooperation,
presenting several predictions for future study.
