IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v9y2018i1d10.1038_s41467-018-03791-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conditional privatization of a public siderophore enables Pseudomonas aeruginosa to resist cheater invasion

Author

Listed:
  • Zhenyu Jin

    (University of Science and Technology of China)

  • Jiahong Li

    (University of Science and Technology of China)

  • Lei Ni

    (University of Science and Technology of China)

  • Rongrong Zhang

    (University of Science and Technology of China)

  • Aiguo Xia

    (University of Science and Technology of China)

  • Fan Jin

    (University of Science and Technology of China
    University of Science and Technology of China
    University of Science and Technology of China)

Abstract

Understanding the mechanisms that promote cooperative behaviors of bacteria in their hosts is of great significance to clinical therapies. Environmental stress is generally believed to increase competition and reduce cooperation in bacteria. Here, we show that bacterial cooperation can in fact be maintained because of environmental stress. We show that Pseudomonas aeruginosa regulates the secretion of iron-scavenging siderophores in the presence of different environmental stresses, reserving this public good for private use in protection against reactive oxygen species when under stress. We term this strategy “conditional privatization”. Using a combination of experimental evolution and theoretical modeling, we demonstrate that in the presence of environmental stress the conditional privatization strategy is resistant to invasion by non-producing cheaters. These findings show how the regulation of public goods secretion under stress affects the evolutionary stability of cooperation in a pathogenic population, which may assist in the rational development of novel therapies.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhenyu Jin & Jiahong Li & Lei Ni & Rongrong Zhang & Aiguo Xia & Fan Jin, 2018. "Conditional privatization of a public siderophore enables Pseudomonas aeruginosa to resist cheater invasion," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-03791-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03791-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03791-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-018-03791-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Richard J. Lindsay & Philippa J. Holder & Mark Hewlett & Ivana Gudelj, 2024. "Experimental evolution of yeast shows that public-goods upregulation can evolve despite challenges from exploitative non-producers," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Helena R. Ma & Helen Z. Xu & Kyeri Kim & Deverick J. Anderson & Lingchong You, 2024. "Private benefit of β-lactamase dictates selection dynamics of combination antibiotic treatment," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-03791-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.