The bright side of social cheaters: potential beneficial roles of social cheaters in microbial communities

Cooperation in microbial communities via production of public goods is susceptible to social cheating, since selfish individuals that do not contribute to their synthesis but benefit from their production thrive in the presence of cooperators. This behavior has been observed in the laboratory using bacterial and yeast models. Moreover, growing evidence indicates that cheating is frequent in natural microbial communities. In the laboratory, social cheating can promote population collapse or tragedy of the commons when excessive. Nevertheless, there are diverse mechanisms that counteract cheating in microbes, as well as theoretical and experimental evidence that suggests possible beneficial roles of social cheaters for the microbial populations. In this mini review manuscript we compile and discuss such possible roles.

Automated summary

Cooperation in microbial communities through production of public goods is vulnerable to social cheating, but there are diverse mechanisms to counteract this behavior, and social cheaters may have beneficial roles for microbial populations.