Ecological histories govern social exploitation by microorganisms
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Date
2025-01
Publication Type
Journal Article
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yes
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Abstract
Exploitation is a common feature of social interactions, which can be modified by ecological context. Here, we investigate effects of ecological history on exploitation phenotypes in bacteria. In experiments with the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus, prior resource levels of different genotypes interacting during cooperative multicellular development were found to regulate social fitness, including whether cheating occurs. Responses of developmental spore production to manipulation of resource-level histories differed between interacting cooperators and cheaters, and relative-fitness advantages gained by cheating after high-resource growth were generally reduced or absent if one or both parties experienced low-resource growth. Low-resource growth also eliminated exploitation in some pairwise mixes of cooperative natural isolates that occurs when both strains have grown under resource abundance. Our results contrast with previous experiments in which cooperator fitness correlated positively with concurrent resource level and suggest that resource-level variation may be important in regulating whether exploitation of cooperators occurs in a natural context.
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published
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Volume
19 (1)
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
Oxford University Press
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Subject
Cooperation; Cheating; Ecological history; Exploitation; Resource level
Organisational unit
03939 - Velicer, Gregory J. / Velicer, Gregory J.
Notes
Funding
160005 - Experimental evolution of motile social bacteria (SNF)
182830 - Mechanisms and indirect effects of adaptation by actively motile populations of Myxococcus xanthus (SNF)
182830 - Mechanisms and indirect effects of adaptation by actively motile populations of Myxococcus xanthus (SNF)