Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Biology
Bacterial Cooperation Through Horizontal Gene Transfer, Isaiah Paolo A. Lee, Omar T. Eldakar, J. Peter Gogarten, Cheryl P. Andam
Bacterial Cooperation Through Horizontal Gene Transfer, Isaiah Paolo A. Lee, Omar T. Eldakar, J. Peter Gogarten, Cheryl P. Andam
Biology Faculty Articles
Cooperation exists across all scales of biological organization, from genetic elements to complex human societies. Bacteria cooperate by secreting molecules that benefit all individuals in the population (i.e., public goods). Genes associated with cooperation can spread among strains through horizontal gene transfer (HGT). We discuss recent findings on how HGT mediated by mobile genetic elements promotes bacterial cooperation, how cooperation in turn can facilitate more frequent HGT, and how the act of HGT itself may be considered as a form of cooperation. We propose that HGT is an important enforcement mechanism in bacterial populations, thus creating a positive feedback loop …
Programmed Allee Effect In Bacteria Causes A Tradeoff Between Population Spread And Survival, Robert P. Smith, Cheemang Tan, Jaydeep K. Srimani, Anand Pai, Katherine A. Riccione, Hao Song, Lingchong You
Programmed Allee Effect In Bacteria Causes A Tradeoff Between Population Spread And Survival, Robert P. Smith, Cheemang Tan, Jaydeep K. Srimani, Anand Pai, Katherine A. Riccione, Hao Song, Lingchong You
Biology Faculty Articles
Dispersal is necessary for spread into new habitats, but it has also been shown to inhibit spread. Theoretical studies have suggested that the presence of a strong Allee effect may account for these counterintuitive observations. Experimental demonstration of this notion is lacking due to the difficulty in quantitative analysis of such phenomena in a natural setting. We engineered Escherichia coli to exhibit a strong Allee effect and examined how the Allee effect would affect the spread of the engineered bacteria. We showed that the Allee effect led to a biphasic dependence of bacterial spread on the dispersal rate: spread is …
Allelopathy As An Emergent, Exploitable Public Good In The Bloom-Forming Microalga Prymnesium Parvum, William W. Driscoll, Noelle J. Espinosa, Omar T. Eldakar, Jeremiah D. Hackett
Allelopathy As An Emergent, Exploitable Public Good In The Bloom-Forming Microalga Prymnesium Parvum, William W. Driscoll, Noelle J. Espinosa, Omar T. Eldakar, Jeremiah D. Hackett
Biology Faculty Articles
Many microbes cooperatively secrete extracellular products that favorably modify their environment. Consistent with social evolution theory, structured habitats play a role in maintaining these traits in microbial model systems, by localizing the benefits and separating strains that invest in these products from ‘cheater’ strains that benefit without paying the cost. It is thus surprising that many unicellular, well-mixed microalgal populations invest in extracellular toxins that confer ecological benefits upon the entire population, for example, by eliminating nutrient competitors (allelopathy). Here we test the hypotheses that microalgal exotoxins are (1) exploitable public goods that benefit all cells, regardless of investment, or …
Selfishness As Second-Order Altruism, Omar Tonsi Eldakar, David Sloan Wilson
Selfishness As Second-Order Altruism, Omar Tonsi Eldakar, David Sloan Wilson
Biology Faculty Articles
Selfishness is seldom considered a group-beneficial strategy. In the typical evolutionary formulation, altruism benefits the group, selfishness undermines altruism, and the purpose of the model is to identify mechanisms, such as kinship or reciprocity, that enable altruism to evolve. Recent models have explored punishment as an important mechanism favoring the evolution of altruism, but punishment can be costly to the punisher, making it a form of second-order altruism. This model identifies a strategy called “selfish punisher” that involves behaving selfishly in first-order interactions and altruistically in second-order interactions by punishing other selfish individuals. Selfish punishers cause selfishness to be a …