Cheating on Cheaters Stabilizes Cooperation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Current Biology : CB
Özhan ÖzkayaKarina B Xavier

Abstract

Bacterial cooperation can be disrupted by non-producers that can profit from public goods without paying their production cost. A cheater can increase in frequency, exhausting the public good and causing a population collapse. Here, we investigate how interactions among two cheaters for distinct social traits influence the short- and long-term dynamics of polymorphic populations. Using as a model Pseudomonas aeruginosa and its extensively studied social traits, production of the siderophore pyoverdine, and the quorum-sensing regulated elastase, we analyzed the social dynamics of polymorphic populations under conditions where the two traits are required for optimal growth. We show that cheaters for either trait compete with both the wild-type and each other and that mutants for pyoverdine production can prevent a drastic population collapse caused by quorum-sensing cheaters. A simple mathematical model suggests that the observed social dynamics are determined by the ratio of the costs of each social trait, such that the mutant, which avoids paying the highest cost, dominates the population; in contrast, mean fitness of the population is determined by the difference between the benefits and the costs of the social traits. Finally...Continue Reading

Citations

Nov 23, 2018·The ISME Journal·Ishay Ben-ZionAvigdor Eldar
Feb 21, 2019·Journal of Bacteriology·Hui ZhouFeng Xu
Nov 22, 2019·Nature Reviews. Microbiology·Jos KramerRolf Kümmerli
Sep 12, 2019·Frontiers in Microbiology·Karishma Bisht, Catherine Ann Wakeman
Jun 30, 2019·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Yoav RamLilach Hadany
Feb 8, 2020·Nature Communications·Marc Garcia-Garcera, Eduardo P C Rocha
Nov 1, 2020·World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology·Pratika SinghAmrita Srivastava
Nov 26, 2020·FEMS Microbiology Ecology·Rodolfo García-Contreras, Daniel Loarca
Apr 29, 2020·Trends in Microbiology·Kristina Stephens, William E Bentley
Aug 15, 2021·Molecular Ecology·Alexandre R T FigueiredoRolf Kümmerli

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