Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Biology
Spite Versus Cheats: Competition Among Social Strategies Shapes Virulence In Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, R. Inglis, Sam Brown, Sam Brown, Angus Buckling
Spite Versus Cheats: Competition Among Social Strategies Shapes Virulence In Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, R. Inglis, Sam Brown, Sam Brown, Angus Buckling
Biology Department Faculty Works
Social interactions have been shown to play an important role in bacterial evolution and virulence. The majority of empirical studies conducted have only considered social traits in isolation, yet numerous social traits, such as the production of spiteful bacteriocins (anticompetitor toxins) and iron-scavenging siderophores (a public good) by the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, are frequently expressed simultaneously. Crucially, both bacteriocin production and siderophore cheating can be favored under the same competitive conditions, and we develop theory and carry out experiments to determine how the success of a bacteriocin-producing genotype is influenced by social cheating of susceptible competitors and the resultant …
Spite And The Scale Of Competition In Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, R. Inglis, Patrick Roberts, Andy Gardner, Angus Buckling
Spite And The Scale Of Competition In Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, R. Inglis, Patrick Roberts, Andy Gardner, Angus Buckling
Biology Department Faculty Works
Scale of competition has been shown to be an important factor in shaping the evolution of social interactions. Although many theoretical and experimental studies have examined its effect on altruistic cooperation, relatively little research effort has been focused on spiteful behaviors—actions that harm both the actor and the recipient. In this study, we expand on existing theory by investigating the importance of the global frequency of spiteful alleles, and we determine experimentally how the scale of competition affects selection for spite in the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa under high and intermediate spatial relatedness. Consistent with our theoretical results, we found …
Evolutionary Ecology Of Microbial Wars: Within-Host Competition And (Incidental) Virulence, Sam Brown, R Inglis, François Taddei
Evolutionary Ecology Of Microbial Wars: Within-Host Competition And (Incidental) Virulence, Sam Brown, R Inglis, François Taddei
Biology Department Faculty Works
Invading an occupied niche is a formidable ecological challenge, and one of particular human importance in the context of food-borne microbial pathogens. We discuss distinct categories of invader-triggered environmental change that facilitate invasion by emptying their niche of competitors. Evidence is reviewed that gut bacteria use such strategies to manipulate their environment (via bacteriocins, temperate phage viruses or immuno-manipulation) at the expense of their competitors are reviewed. The possible virulence implications of microbial warfare among multiple co-infecting strains are diverse. Killing competitors can reduce virulence by reducing overall microbial densities, or increase virulence if for example the allelopathic mechanism involves …