Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 108, Issue 33, Pages 13635-13640Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1102923108
Keywords
bacterial communication; diversifying selection; microbiology; sociobiology
Categories
Funding
- Human Frontier Science Program
- Israel Science Foundation
- Marie Curie international reintegration grant
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In microbial quorum sensing (QS) communication systems, microbes produce and respond to a signaling molecule, enabling a cooperative response at high cell densities. Many species of bacteria show fast, intraspecific, evolutionary divergence of their QS pathway specificity-signaling molecules activate cognate receptors in the same strain but fail to activate, and sometimes inhibit, those of other strains. Despite many molecular studies, it has remained unclear how a signaling molecule and receptor can coevolve, what maintains diversity, and what drives the evolution of cross-inhibition. Here I use mathematical analysis to show that when QS controls the production of extracellular enzymes-public goods-diversification can readily evolve. Coevolution is positively selected by cycles of alternating cheating receptor mutations and cheating immunity signaling mutations. The maintenance of diversity and the evolution of cross-inhibition between strains are facilitated by facultative cheating between the competing strains. My results suggest a role for complex social strategies in the long-term evolution of QS systems. More generally, my model of QS divergence suggests a form of kin recognition where different kin types coexist in unstructured populations.
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