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Cooperation and competition in pathogenic bacteria

Author

Listed:
  • Ashleigh S. Griffin

    (University of Edinburgh)

  • Stuart A. West

    (University of Edinburgh)

  • Angus Buckling

    (University of Bath)

Abstract

Explaining altruistic cooperation is one of the greatest challenges for evolutionary biology1,2,3. One solution to this problem is if costly cooperative behaviours are directed towards relatives4,5. This idea of kin selection has been hugely influential and applied widely from microorganisms to vertebrates2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. However, a problem arises if there is local competition for resources, because this leads to competition between relatives, reducing selection for cooperation3,11,12,13,14. Here we use an experimental evolution approach to test the effect of the scale of competition, and how it interacts with relatedness. The cooperative trait that we examine is the production of siderophores, iron-scavenging agents, in the pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa15,16,17. As expected, our results show that higher levels of cooperative siderophore production evolve in the higher relatedness treatments. However, our results also show that more local competition selects for lower levels of siderophore production and that there is a significant interaction between relatedness and the scale of competition, with relatedness having less effect when the scale of competition is more local. More generally, the scale of competition is likely to be of particular importance for the evolution of cooperation in microorganisms, and also the virulence of pathogenic microorganisms, because cooperative traits such as siderophore production have an important role in determining virulence6,9,17,18,19.

Suggested Citation

  • Ashleigh S. Griffin & Stuart A. West & Angus Buckling, 2004. "Cooperation and competition in pathogenic bacteria," Nature, Nature, vol. 430(7003), pages 1024-1027, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:430:y:2004:i:7003:d:10.1038_nature02744
    DOI: 10.1038/nature02744
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    Cited by:

    1. Wild, Geoff & Pizzari, Tommaso & West, Stuart A., 2011. "Sexual conflict in viscous populations: The effect of the timing of dispersal," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 80(4), pages 298-316.
    2. Erik Bakkeren & Ersin Gül & Jana S. Huisman & Yves Steiger & Andrea Rocker & Wolf-Dietrich Hardt & Médéric Diard, 2022. "Impact of horizontal gene transfer on emergence and stability of cooperative virulence in Salmonella Typhimurium," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Felix J H Hol & Peter Galajda & Krisztina Nagy & Rutger G Woolthuis & Cees Dekker & Juan E Keymer, 2013. "Spatial Structure Facilitates Cooperation in a Social Dilemma: Empirical Evidence from a Bacterial Community," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(10), pages 1-10, October.
    4. Hammerstein, Peter & Leimar, Olof, 2015. "Evolutionary Game Theory in Biology," Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications,, Elsevier.
    5. Kelei Zhao & Xiting Yang & Qianglin Zeng & Yige Zhang & Heyue Li & Chaochao Yan & Jing Shirley Li & Huan Liu & Liangming Du & Yi Wu & Gui Huang & Ting Huang & Yamei Zhang & Hui Zhou & Xinrong Wang & Y, 2023. "Evolution of lasR mutants in polymorphic Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations facilitates chronic infection of the lung," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    6. Kazufumi Hosoda & Shingo Suzuki & Yoshinori Yamauchi & Yasunori Shiroguchi & Akiko Kashiwagi & Naoaki Ono & Kotaro Mori & Tetsuya Yomo, 2011. "Cooperative Adaptation to Establishment of a Synthetic Bacterial Mutualism," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(2), pages 1-9, February.
    7. Dirk Helbing & Anders Johansson, 2010. "Cooperation, Norms, and Revolutions: A Unified Game-Theoretical Approach," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(10), pages 1-15, October.
    8. David V McLeod & Troy Day, 2019. "Social evolution under demographic stochasticity," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-13, February.
    9. Cazzolla Gatti, Roberto, 2021. "A multi-armed bandit algorithm speeds up the evolution of cooperation," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 439(C).
    10. Kerry E Boyle & Hilary Monaco & Dave van Ditmarsch & Maxime Deforet & Joao B Xavier, 2015. "Integration of Metabolic and Quorum Sensing Signals Governing the Decision to Cooperate in a Bacterial Social Trait," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-26, June.
    11. Aneesh P H Bose & Johanna Dabernig-Heinz & Jan Oberkofler & Lukas Koch & Jacqueline Grimm & Kristina M Sefc & Alex Jordan, 2023. "Aggression and spatial positioning of kin and non-kin fish in social groups," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 34(4), pages 673-681.
    12. Elhanati, Yuval & Schuster, Stefan & Brenner, Naama, 2011. "Dynamic modeling of cooperative protein secretion in microorganism populations," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 49-63.
    13. Asher Leeks & Stuart A. West & Melanie Ghoul, 2021. "The evolution of cheating in viruses," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, December.
    14. Qi Su & Lei Zhou & Long Wang, 2019. "Evolutionary multiplayer games on graphs with edge diversity," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-22, April.
    15. Liming Xia & Youzhi Miao & A’li Cao & Yan Liu & Zihao Liu & Xinli Sun & Yansheng Xue & Zhihui Xu & Weibing Xun & Qirong Shen & Nan Zhang & Ruifu Zhang, 2022. "Biosynthetic gene cluster profiling predicts the positive association between antagonism and phylogeny in Bacillus," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    16. Andreas Wagner, 2006. "Cooperation is Fleeting in the World of Transposable Elements," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(12), pages 1-8, December.
    17. Ding, Zhen-Wei & Zheng, Guo-Zhong & Cai, Chao-Ran & Cai, Wei-Ran & Chen, Li & Zhang, Ji-Qiang & Wang, Xu-Ming, 2023. "Emergence of cooperation in two-agent repeated games with reinforcement learning," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 175(P1).
    18. Sebastian Galiani & Matthew Staiger & Gustavo Torrens, 2017. "When Children Rule: Parenting in Modern Families," NBER Working Papers 23087, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Martin Schuster & Eric Foxall & David Finch & Hal Smith & Patrick De Leenheer, 2017. "Tragedy of the commons in the chemostat," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(12), pages 1-13, December.
    20. Hilary Monaco & Kevin S. Liu & Tiago Sereno & Maxime Deforet & Bradford P. Taylor & Yanyan Chen & Caleb C. Reagor & Joao B. Xavier, 2022. "Spatial-temporal dynamics of a microbial cooperative behavior resistant to cheating," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    21. 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.
    22. Jorge Peña & Bin Wu & Jordi Arranz & Arne Traulsen, 2016. "Evolutionary Games of Multiplayer Cooperation on Graphs," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-15, August.

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