Journal
ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 15, Issue 2, Pages 119-125Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01717.x
Keywords
Altruism; chromodynamics; metapopulation; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; pyoverdine type; regulation; siderophore specificity; tag-based cooperation; tagged public good
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Funding
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/G007934/1]
- BBSRC [BB/G00787X/1, BB/G007934/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/G007934/1, BB/G00787X/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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Bacteria produce a great diversity of siderophores to scavenge for iron in their environment. We suggest that this diversity results from the interplay between siderophore producers (cooperators) and non-producers (cheaters): when there are many cheaters exploiting a siderophore type it is beneficial for a mutant to produce a siderophore unusable by the dominant population. We formulated and analysed a mathematical model for tagged public goods to investigate the potential for the emergence of diversity. We found that, although they are rare most of the time, cheaters play a key role in maintaining diversity by regulating the different populations of cooperators. This threshold-triggered feedback prevents any stain of cooperators from dominating the others. Our study provides a novel general mechanism for the evolution of diversity that may apply to many forms of social behaviour.
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