1
|
Brepoels P, De Wit G, Lories B, Belpaire TER, Steenackers HP. Selective pressures for public antibiotic resistance. Crit Rev Microbiol 2024:1-10. [PMID: 39158370 DOI: 10.1080/1040841x.2024.2367666] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2023] [Accepted: 05/25/2024] [Indexed: 08/20/2024]
Abstract
The rapid increase of antibiotic-resistant pathogens is severely limiting our current treatment possibilities. An important subset of the resistance mechanisms conferring antibiotic resistance have public effects, allowing otherwise susceptible bacteria to also survive antibiotic treatment. As susceptible bacteria can survive treatment without bearing the metabolic cost of producing the resistance mechanism, there is potential to increase their relative frequency in the population and, as such, select against resistant bacteria. Multiple studies showed that this altered selection for resistance is dependent on various environmental and treatment parameters. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of their most important findings and describe the main factors impacting the selection for resistance. In-depth understanding of the driving forces behind selection can aid in the design and implementation of alternative treatments which limit the risk of resistance development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Pauline Brepoels
- Centre for Microbial and Plant Genetics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Gitta De Wit
- Centre for Microbial and Plant Genetics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Bram Lories
- Centre for Microbial and Plant Genetics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Tom E R Belpaire
- Centre for Microbial and Plant Genetics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Division of Mechatronics, Biostatistics, and Sensors, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | | |
Collapse
|
2
|
Lin H, Wang D, Wang Q, Mao J, Bai Y, Qu J. Interspecific competition prevents the proliferation of social cheaters in an unstructured environment. THE ISME JOURNAL 2024; 18:wrad038. [PMID: 38365247 PMCID: PMC10939377 DOI: 10.1093/ismejo/wrad038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2023] [Revised: 12/22/2023] [Accepted: 12/22/2023] [Indexed: 02/18/2024]
Abstract
Bacterial communities are intricate ecosystems in which various members interact, compete for resources, and influence each other's growth. Antibiotics intensify this complexity, posing challenges in maintaining biodiversity. In this study, we delved into the behavior of kin bacterial communities when subjected to antibiotic perturbations, with a particular focus on how interspecific interactions shape these responses. We hypothesized that social cheating-where resistant strains shield both themselves and neighboring cheaters-obstructed coexistence, especially when kin bacteria exhibited varied growth rates and antibiotic sensitivities. To explore potential pathways to coexistence, we incorporated a third bacterial member, anticipating a shift in the dynamics of community coexistence. Simulations and experimental bacterial communities confirmed our predictions, emphasizing the pivotal role of interspecific competition in promoting coexistence under antibiotic interference. These insights are crucial for understanding bacterial ecosystem stability, interpreting drug-microbiome interactions, and predicting bacterial community adaptations to environmental changes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hui Lin
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Donglin Wang
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China
| | - Qiaojuan Wang
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Jie Mao
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China
| | - Yaohui Bai
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China
| | - Jiuhui Qu
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Barona-Gómez F, Chevrette MG, Hoskisson PA. On the evolution of natural product biosynthesis. Adv Microb Physiol 2023; 83:309-349. [PMID: 37507161 DOI: 10.1016/bs.ampbs.2023.05.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/30/2023]
Abstract
Natural products are the raw material for drug discovery programmes. Bioactive natural products are used extensively in medicine and agriculture and have found utility as antibiotics, immunosuppressives, anti-cancer drugs and anthelminthics. Remarkably, the natural role and what mechanisms drive evolution of these molecules is relatively poorly understood. The exponential increase in genome and chemical data in recent years, coupled with technical advances in bioinformatics and genetics have enabled progress to be made in understanding the evolution of biosynthetic gene clusters and the products of their enzymatic machinery. Here we discuss the diversity of natural products, incorporating the mechanisms that govern evolution of metabolic pathways and how this can be applied to biosynthetic gene clusters. We build on the nomenclature of natural products in terms of primary, integrated, secondary and specialised metabolism and place this within an ecology-evolutionary-developmental biology framework. This eco-evo-devo framework we believe will help to clarify the nature and use of the term specialised metabolites in the future.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Marc G Chevrette
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Sciences, University of Florida, Museum Drive, Gainesville, FL, United States; University of Florida Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Mowry Road, Gainesville, FL, United States
| | - Paul A Hoskisson
- Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Cathedral Street, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Cooney DB, Levin SA, Mori Y, Plotkin JB. Evolutionary dynamics within and among competing groups. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2216186120. [PMID: 37155901 PMCID: PMC10193939 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2216186120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2023] [Indexed: 05/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Biological and social systems are structured at multiple scales, and the incentives of individuals who interact in a group may diverge from the collective incentive of the group as a whole. Mechanisms to resolve this tension are responsible for profound transitions in evolutionary history, including the origin of cellular life, multicellular life, and even societies. Here, we synthesize a growing literature that extends evolutionary game theory to describe multilevel evolutionary dynamics, using nested birth-death processes and partial differential equations to model natural selection acting on competition within and among groups of individuals. We analyze how mechanisms known to promote cooperation within a single group-including assortment, reciprocity, and population structure-alter evolutionary outcomes in the presence of competition among groups. We find that population structures most conducive to cooperation in multiscale systems can differ from those most conducive within a single group. Likewise, for competitive interactions with a continuous range of strategies we find that among-group selection may fail to produce socially optimal outcomes, but it can nonetheless produce second-best solutions that balance individual incentives to defect with the collective incentives for cooperation. We conclude by describing the broad applicability of multiscale evolutionary models to problems ranging from the production of diffusible metabolites in microbes to the management of common-pool resources in human societies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Daniel B Cooney
- Department of Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
- Center for Mathematical Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Simon A Levin
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
| | - Yoichiro Mori
- Department of Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
- Center for Mathematical Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
- Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Joshua B Plotkin
- Department of Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
- Center for Mathematical Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
- Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Deforet M. Long-range alteration of the physical environment mediates cooperation between Pseudomonas aeruginosa swarming colonies. Environ Microbiol 2023. [PMID: 36964975 DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.16373] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Accepted: 03/15/2023] [Indexed: 03/27/2023]
Abstract
Pseudomonas aeruginosa makes and secretes massive amounts of rhamnolipid surfactants that enable swarming motility over biogel surfaces. But how these rhamnolipids interact with biogels to assist swarming remains unclear. Here, I use a combination of optical techniques across scales and genetically engineered strains to demonstrate that rhamnolipids can induce agar gel swelling over distances >10,000× the body size of an individual cell. The swelling front is on the micrometric scale and is easily visible using shadowgraphy. Rhamnolipid transport is not restricted to the surface of the gel but occurs through the whole thickness of the plate and, consequently, the spreading dynamics depend on the local thickness. Surprisingly, rhamnolipids can cross the whole gel and induce swelling on the opposite side of a two-face Petri dish. The swelling front delimits an area where the mechanical properties of the surface properties are modified: water wets the surface more easily, which increases the motility of individual bacteria and enables collective motility. A genetically engineered mutant unable to secrete rhamnolipids (ΔrhlA), and therefore unable to swarm, is rescued from afar with rhamnolipids produced by a remote colony. These results exemplify the remarkable capacity of bacteria to change the physical environment around them and its ecological consequences.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maxime Deforet
- Sorbonne Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire Jean Perrin, LJP, Paris, 75005, France
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Souza LS, Irie Y, Eda S. Black Queen Hypothesis, partial privatization, and quorum sensing evolution. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0278449. [PMID: 36449503 PMCID: PMC9710793 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2022] [Accepted: 11/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Microorganisms produce costly cooperative goods whose benefit is partially shared with nonproducers, called 'mixed' goods. The Black Queen Hypothesis predicts that partial privatization has two major evolutionary implications. First, to favor strains producing several types of mixed goods over nonproducing strains. Second, to favor the maintenance of cooperative traits through different strains instead of having all cooperative traits present in a single strain (metabolic specialization). Despite the importance of quorum sensing regulation of mixed goods, it is unclear how partial privatization affects quorum sensing evolution. Here, we studied the influence of partial privatization on the evolution of quorum sensing. We developed a mathematical population genetics model of an unstructured microbial population considering four strains that differ in their ability to produce an autoinducer (quorum sensing signaling molecule) and a mixed good. Our model assumes that the production of the autoinducers and the mixed goods is constitutive and/or depends on quorum sensing. Our results suggest that, unless autoinducers are costless, partial privatization cannot favor quorum sensing. This result occurs because with costly autoinducers: (1) a strain that produces both autoinducer and goods (fully producing strain) cannot persist in the population; (2) the strain only producing the autoinducer and the strain producing mixed goods in response to the autoinducers cannot coexist, i.e., metabolic specialization cannot be favored. Together, partial privatization might have been crucial to favor a primordial form of quorum sensing-where autoinducers were thought to be a metabolic byproduct (costless)-but not the transition to nowadays costly autoinducers.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lucas Santana Souza
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States of America
| | - Yasuhiko Irie
- Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Shigetoshi Eda
- Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States of America
- Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Santamaria G, Liao C, Lindberg C, Chen Y, Wang Z, Rhee K, Pinto FR, Yan J, Xavier JB. Evolution and regulation of microbial secondary metabolism. eLife 2022; 11:e76119. [PMID: 36409069 PMCID: PMC9708071 DOI: 10.7554/elife.76119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2021] [Accepted: 11/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Microbes have disproportionate impacts on the macroscopic world. This is in part due to their ability to grow to large populations that collectively secrete massive amounts of secondary metabolites and alter their environment. Yet, the conditions favoring secondary metabolism despite the potential costs for primary metabolism remain unclear. Here we investigated the biosurfactants that the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa makes and secretes to decrease the surface tension of surrounding liquid. Using a combination of genomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, and mathematical modeling we show that the ability to make surfactants from glycerol varies inconsistently across the phylogenetic tree; instead, lineages that lost this ability are also worse at reducing the oxidative stress of primary metabolism on glycerol. Experiments with different carbon sources support a link with oxidative stress that explains the inconsistent distribution across the P. aeruginosa phylogeny and suggests a general principle: P. aeruginosa lineages produce surfactants if they can reduce the oxidative stress produced by primary metabolism and have excess resources, beyond their primary needs, to afford secondary metabolism. These results add a new layer to the regulation of a secondary metabolite unessential for primary metabolism but important to change physical properties of the environments surrounding bacterial populations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Guillem Santamaria
- Program for Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterNew YorkUnited States
- BioISI – Biosystems & Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculty of Sciences, University of LisboaLisboaPortugal
| | - Chen Liao
- Program for Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterNew YorkUnited States
| | - Chloe Lindberg
- Program for Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterNew YorkUnited States
| | - Yanyan Chen
- Program for Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterNew YorkUnited States
| | - Zhe Wang
- Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical CollegeNew YorkUnited States
| | - Kyu Rhee
- Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical CollegeNew YorkUnited States
| | - Francisco Rodrigues Pinto
- BioISI – Biosystems & Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculty of Sciences, University of LisboaLisboaPortugal
| | - Jinyuan Yan
- Program for Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterNew YorkUnited States
| | - Joao B Xavier
- Program for Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterNew YorkUnited States
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Belpaire TER, Pešek J, Lories B, Verstrepen KJ, Steenackers HP, Ramon H, Smeets B. Permissive aggregative group formation favors coexistence between cooperators and defectors in yeast. THE ISME JOURNAL 2022; 16:2305-2312. [PMID: 35778439 PMCID: PMC9477849 DOI: 10.1038/s41396-022-01275-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2022] [Revised: 06/08/2022] [Accepted: 06/16/2022] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the FLO1 gene encodes flocculins that lead to formation of multicellular flocs, that offer protection to the constituent cells. Flo1p was found to preferentially bind to fellow cooperators compared to defectors lacking FLO1 expression, enriching cooperators within the flocs. Given this dual function in cooperation and kin recognition, FLO1 has been termed a "green beard gene". Because of the heterophilic nature of the Flo1p bond however, we hypothesize that kin recognition is permissive and depends on the relative stability of the FLO1+/flo1- versus FLO1+/FLO1+ detachment force F. We combine single-cell measurements of adhesion, individual cell-based simulations of cluster formation, and in vitro flocculation to study the impact of relative bond stability on the evolutionary stability of cooperation. We identify a trade-off between both aspects of the green beard mechanism, with reduced relative bond stability leading to increased kin recognition at the expense of cooperative benefits. We show that the fitness of FLO1 cooperators decreases as their frequency in the population increases, arising from the observed permissive character (F+- = 0.5 F++) of the Flo1p bond. Considering the costs associated with FLO1 expression, this asymmetric selection often results in a stable coexistence between cooperators and defectors.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tom E R Belpaire
- Division of Mechatronics, Biostatistics, and Sensors, KU Leuven, 3001, Leuven, Belgium.
- Centre for Microbial and Plant Genetics, KU Leuven, 3001, Leuven, Belgium.
| | - Jiří Pešek
- Team SIMBIOTX, Inria Saclay, 91120, Palaiseau, France
| | - Bram Lories
- Centre for Microbial and Plant Genetics, KU Leuven, 3001, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Kevin J Verstrepen
- Centre for Microbial and Plant Genetics, KU Leuven, 3001, Leuven, Belgium
- Laboratory of Systems Biology, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, 3001, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Hans P Steenackers
- Centre for Microbial and Plant Genetics, KU Leuven, 3001, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Herman Ramon
- Division of Mechatronics, Biostatistics, and Sensors, KU Leuven, 3001, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Bart Smeets
- Division of Mechatronics, Biostatistics, and Sensors, KU Leuven, 3001, Leuven, Belgium
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Lissens M, Joos M, Lories B, Steenackers HP. Evolution-proof inhibitors of public good cooperation: a screening strategy inspired by social evolution theory. FEMS Microbiol Rev 2022; 46:6604382. [PMID: 35675280 PMCID: PMC9616471 DOI: 10.1093/femsre/fuac019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2021] [Revised: 04/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Interference with public good cooperation provides a promising novel antimicrobial strategy since social evolution theory predicts that resistant mutants will be counter-selected if they share the public benefits of their resistance with sensitive cells in the population. Although this hypothesis is supported by a limited number of pioneering studies, an extensive body of more fundamental work on social evolution describes a multitude of mechanisms and conditions that can stabilize public behaviour, thus potentially allowing resistant mutants to thrive. In this paper we theorize on how these different mechanisms can influence the evolution of resistance against public good inhibitors. Based hereon, we propose an innovative 5-step screening strategy to identify novel evolution-proof public good inhibitors, which involves a systematic evaluation of the exploitability of public goods under the most relevant experimental conditions, as well as a careful assessment of the most optimal way to interfere with their action. Overall, this opinion paper is aimed to contribute to long-term solutions to fight bacterial infections.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maries Lissens
- Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics (CMPG), Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, KU Leuven, Leuven, B-3001, Belgium
| | - Mathieu Joos
- Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics (CMPG), Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, KU Leuven, Leuven, B-3001, Belgium
| | - Bram Lories
- Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics (CMPG), Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, KU Leuven, Leuven, B-3001, Belgium
| | - Hans P Steenackers
- Corresponding author: Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics (CMPG), Kasteelpark Arenberg 20 – Box 2460, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium. E-mail:
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Spatial-temporal dynamics of a microbial cooperative behavior resistant to cheating. Nat Commun 2022; 13:721. [PMID: 35132084 PMCID: PMC8821651 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28321-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2020] [Accepted: 01/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Much of our understanding of bacterial behavior stems from studies in liquid culture. In nature, however, bacteria frequently live in densely packed spatially-structured communities. How does spatial structure affect bacterial cooperative behaviors? In this work, we examine rhamnolipid production—a cooperative and virulent behavior of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Here we show that, in striking contrast to well-mixed liquid culture, rhamnolipid gene expression in spatially-structured colonies is strongly associated with colony specific growth rate, and is impacted by perturbation with diffusible quorum signals. To interpret these findings, we construct a data-driven statistical inference model which captures a length-scale of bacterial interaction that develops over time. Finally, we find that perturbation of P. aeruginosa swarms with quorum signals preserves the cooperating genotype in competition, rather than creating opportunities for cheaters. Overall, our data demonstrate that the complex response to spatial localization is key to preserving bacterial cooperative behaviors. Bacteria often live in densely packed, spatially-structured communities; however, much of our understanding of their behavior stems from studies in liquid culture. Here, Monaco et al. show how spatial structure and quorum sensing modulate a cooperative behavior in colonies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Collapse
|
11
|
Chen YY, Rubenstein DR, Shen SF. Cooperation and Lateral Forces: Moving Beyond Bottom-Up and Top-Down Drivers of Animal Population Dynamics. Front Psychol 2022; 13:768773. [PMID: 35185719 PMCID: PMC8847757 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.768773] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2021] [Accepted: 01/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Biologists have long known that animal population dynamics are regulated by a combination of bottom-up (resource availability) and top-down forces (predation). Yet, economists have argued that human population dynamics can also be influenced by intraspecific cooperation. Despite awareness of the role of interspecific cooperation (mutualism) in influencing resource availability and animal population dynamics, the role of intraspecific cooperation (sociality) under different environmental conditions has rarely been considered. Here we examine the role of what we call "lateral forces" that act within populations and interact with external top-down and bottom-up forces in influencing population dynamics using an individual-based model linking environmental quality, intraspecific cooperation, and population size. We find that the proportion of cooperators is higher when the environment is poor and population sizes are greatest under intermediate resources levels due to the contrasting effects of resource availability on behavior and population size. We also show that social populations are more resilient to environmental change than non-social ones because the benefits of intraspecific cooperation can outweigh the effects of constrained resource availability. Our study elucidates the complex relationship between environmental harshness, cooperation, and population dynamics, which is important for understanding the ecological consequences of cooperation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ying-Yu Chen
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Dustin R. Rubenstein
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Center for Integrative Animal Behavior, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States
| | - Sheng-Feng Shen
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
- Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, College of Life Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Evidence for biosurfactant-induced flow in corners and bacterial spreading in unsaturated porous media. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2111060118. [PMID: 34531326 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2111060118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
The spread of pathogenic bacteria in unsaturated porous media, where air and liquid coexist in pore spaces, is the major cause of soil contamination by pathogens, soft rot in plants, food spoilage, and many pulmonary diseases. However, visualization and fundamental understanding of bacterial transport in unsaturated porous media are currently lacking, limiting the ability to address the above contamination- and disease-related issues. Here, we demonstrate a previously unreported mechanism by which bacterial cells are transported in unsaturated porous media. We discover that surfactant-producing bacteria can generate flows along corners through surfactant production that changes the wettability of the solid surface. The corner flow velocity is on the order of several millimeters per hour, which is the same order of magnitude as bacterial swarming, one of the fastest known modes of bacterial surface translocation. We successfully predict the critical corner angle for bacterial corner flow to occur based on the biosurfactant-induced change in the contact angle of the bacterial solution on the solid surface. Furthermore, we demonstrate that bacteria can indeed spread by producing biosurfactants in a model soil, which consists of packed angular grains. In addition, we demonstrate that bacterial corner flow is controlled by quorum sensing, the cell-cell communication process that regulates biosurfactant production. Understanding this previously unappreciated bacterial transport mechanism will enable more accurate predictions of bacterial spreading in soil and other unsaturated porous media.
Collapse
|
13
|
Smith J, Inglis RF. Evaluating kin and group selection as tools for quantitative analysis of microbial data. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20201657. [PMID: 34004128 PMCID: PMC8131122 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1657] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2020] [Accepted: 04/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Kin selection and multilevel selection theory are often used to interpret experiments about the evolution of cooperation and social behaviour among microbes. But while these experiments provide rich, detailed fitness data, theory is mostly used as a conceptual heuristic. Here, we evaluate how kin and multilevel selection theory perform as quantitative analysis tools. We reanalyse published microbial datasets and show that the canonical fitness models of both theories are almost always poor fits because they use statistical regressions misspecified for the strong selection and non-additive effects we show are widespread in microbial systems. We identify analytical practices in empirical research that suggest how theory might be improved, and show that analysing both individual and group fitness outcomes helps clarify the biology of selection. A data-driven approach to theory thus shows how kin and multilevel selection both have untapped potential as tools for quantitative understanding of social evolution in all branches of life.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jeff Smith
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri–St Louis, St Louis MO 63121, USA
| | - R. Fredrik Inglis
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri–St Louis, St Louis MO 63121, USA
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Gitschlag BL, Tate AT, Patel MR. Nutrient status shapes selfish mitochondrial genome dynamics across different levels of selection. eLife 2020; 9:56686. [PMID: 32959778 PMCID: PMC7508553 DOI: 10.7554/elife.56686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2020] [Accepted: 08/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Cooperation and cheating are widespread evolutionary strategies. While cheating confers an advantage to individual entities within a group, competition between groups favors cooperation. Selfish or cheater mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) proliferates within hosts while being selected against at the level of host fitness. How does environment shape cheater dynamics across different selection levels? Focusing on food availability, we address this question using heteroplasmic Caenorhabditis elegans. We find that the proliferation of selfish mtDNA within hosts depends on nutrient status stimulating mtDNA biogenesis in the developing germline. Interestingly, mtDNA biogenesis is not sufficient for this proliferation, which also requires the stress-response transcription factor FoxO/DAF-16. At the level of host fitness, FoxO/DAF-16 also prevents food scarcity from accelerating the selection against selfish mtDNA. This suggests that the ability to cope with nutrient stress can promote host tolerance of cheaters. Our study delineates environmental effects on selfish mtDNA dynamics at different levels of selection.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bryan L Gitschlag
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
| | - Ann T Tate
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
| | - Maulik R Patel
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States.,Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, United States.,Diabetes Research and Training Center, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, United States
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Oppler ZJ, Parrish ME, Murphy HA. Variation at an adhesin locus suggests sociality in natural populations of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Proc Biol Sci 2019; 286:20191948. [PMID: 31615361 PMCID: PMC6834051 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.1948] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Microbes engage in numerous social behaviours that are critical for survival and reproduction, and that require individuals to act as a collective. Various mechanisms ensure that collectives are composed of related, cooperating cells, thus allowing for the evolution and stability of these traits, and for selection to favour traits beneficial to the collective. Since microbes are difficult to observe directly, sociality in natural populations can instead be investigated using evolutionary genetic signatures, as social loci can be evolutionary hotspots. The budding yeast has been studied for over a century, yet little is known about its social behaviour in nature. Flo11 is a highly regulated cell adhesin required for most laboratory social phenotypes; studies suggest it may function in cell recognition and its heterogeneous expression may be adaptive for collectives such as biofilms. We investigated this locus and found positive selection in the areas implicated in cell-cell interaction, suggesting selection for kin discrimination. We also found balancing selection at an upstream activation site, suggesting selection on the level of variegated gene expression. Our results suggest this model yeast is surprisingly social in natural environments and is probably engaging in various forms of sociality. By using genomic data, this research provides a glimpse of otherwise unobservable interactions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Zachary J Oppler
- Department of Biology, William & Mary, PO Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA
| | - Meadow E Parrish
- Department of Biology, William & Mary, PO Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA
| | - Helen A Murphy
- Department of Biology, William & Mary, PO Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Kumar KV, Pal A, Bai P, Kour A, E S, P R, Kausar A, Chatterjee M, Prasad G, Balayan S, Dutta P, Wijesekera K. Co-aggregation of bacterial flora isolated from the human skin surface. Microb Pathog 2019; 135:103630. [DOI: 10.1016/j.micpath.2019.103630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2018] [Revised: 06/27/2019] [Accepted: 07/16/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
|
17
|
Yan J, Monaco H, Xavier JB. The Ultimate Guide to Bacterial Swarming: An Experimental Model to Study the Evolution of Cooperative Behavior. Annu Rev Microbiol 2019; 73:293-312. [PMID: 31180806 PMCID: PMC7428860 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-micro-020518-120033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Cooperation has fascinated biologists since Darwin. How did cooperative behaviors evolve despite the fitness cost to the cooperator? Bacteria have cooperative behaviors that make excellent models to take on this age-old problem from both proximate (molecular) and ultimate (evolutionary) angles. We delve into Pseudomonas aeruginosa swarming, a phenomenon where billions of bacteria move cooperatively across distances of centimeters in a matter of a few hours. Experiments with swarming have unveiled a strategy called metabolic prudence that stabilizes cooperation, have showed the importance of spatial structure, and have revealed a regulatory network that integrates environmental stimuli and direct cooperative behavior, similar to a machine learning algorithm. The study of swarming elucidates more than proximate mechanisms: It exposes ultimate mechanisms valid to all scales, from cells in cancerous tumors to animals in large communities.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jinyuan Yan
- Program for Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA;
| | - Hilary Monaco
- Program for Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA;
| | - Joao B Xavier
- Program for Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA;
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Wechsler T, Kümmerli R, Dobay A. Understanding policing as a mechanism of cheater control in cooperating bacteria. J Evol Biol 2019; 32:412-424. [PMID: 30724418 PMCID: PMC6520251 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13423] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2018] [Revised: 01/30/2019] [Accepted: 01/31/2019] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Policing occurs in insect, animal and human societies, where it evolved as a mechanism maintaining cooperation. Recently, it has been suggested that policing might even be relevant in enforcing cooperation in much simpler organisms such as bacteria. Here, we used individual-based modelling to develop an evolutionary concept for policing in bacteria and identify the conditions under which it can be adaptive. We modelled interactions between cooperators, producing a beneficial public good, cheaters, exploiting the public good without contributing to it, and public good-producing policers that secrete a toxin to selectively target cheaters. We found that toxin-mediated policing is favoured when (a) toxins are potent and durable, (b) toxins are cheap to produce, (c) cell and public good diffusion is intermediate, and (d) toxins diffuse farther than the public good. Although our simulations identify the parameter space where toxin-mediated policing can evolve, we further found that policing decays when the genetic linkage between public good and toxin production breaks. This is because policing is itself a public good, offering protection to toxin-resistant mutants that still produce public goods, yet no longer invest in toxins. Our work thus highlights that not only specific environmental conditions are required for toxin-mediated policing to evolve, but also strong genetic linkage between the expression of public goods, toxins and toxin resistance is essential for this mechanism to remain evolutionarily stable in the long run.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tobias Wechsler
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Rolf Kümmerli
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Akos Dobay
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Zurich Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
19
|
Boyle KE, Monaco HT, Deforet M, Yan J, Wang Z, Rhee K, Xavier JB. Metabolism and the Evolution of Social Behavior. Mol Biol Evol 2017; 34:2367-2379. [PMID: 28595344 PMCID: PMC5850603 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msx174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
How does metabolism influence social behavior? This fundamental question at the interface of molecular biology and social evolution is hard to address with experiments in animals, and therefore, we turned to a simple microbial system: swarming in the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Using genetic engineering, we excised a locus encoding a key metabolic regulator and disrupted P. aeruginosa's metabolic prudence, the regulatory mechanism that controls expression of swarming public goods and protects this social behavior from exploitation by cheaters. Then, using experimental evolution, we followed the joint evolution of the genome, the metabolome and the social behavior as swarming re-evolved. New variants emerged spontaneously with mutations that reorganized the metabolome and compensated in distinct ways for the disrupted metabolic prudence. These experiments with a unicellular organism provide a detailed view of how metabolism-currency of all physiological processes-can determine the costs and benefits of a social behavior and ultimately influence how an organism behaves towards other organisms of the same species.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kerry E Boyle
- Program in Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY.,Program in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, New York, NY
| | - Hilary T Monaco
- Program in Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY.,Tri-Institutional Training Program in Computational Biology and Medicine, New York, NY
| | - Maxime Deforet
- Program in Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
| | - Jinyuan Yan
- Program in Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
| | - Zhe Wang
- Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY
| | - Kyu Rhee
- Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY
| | - Joao B Xavier
- Program in Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Siderophore cheating and cheating resistance shape competition for iron in soil and freshwater Pseudomonas communities. Nat Commun 2017; 8:414. [PMID: 28871205 PMCID: PMC5583256 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00509-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 128] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2016] [Accepted: 06/29/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
All social organisms experience dilemmas between cooperators performing group-beneficial actions and cheats selfishly exploiting these actions. Although bacteria have become model organisms to study social dilemmas in laboratory systems, we know little about their relevance in natural communities. Here, we show that social interactions mediated by a single shareable compound necessary for growth (the iron-scavenging pyoverdine) have important consequences for competitive dynamics in soil and pond communities of Pseudomonas bacteria. We find that pyoverdine non- and low-producers co-occur in many natural communities. While non-producers have genes coding for multiple pyoverdine receptors and are able to exploit compatible heterologous pyoverdines from other community members, producers differ in the pyoverdine types they secrete, offering protection against exploitation from non-producers with incompatible receptors. Our findings indicate that there is both selection for cheating and cheating resistance, which could drive antagonistic co-evolution and diversification in natural bacterial communities. Lab strains of Pseudomonas are model systems for the evolution of cooperation over public goods (iron-scavenging siderophores). Here, Butaitė et al. add ecological and evolutionary insight into this system by showing that cheating and resistance to cheating both shape competition for iron in natural Pseudomonas communities.
Collapse
|
21
|
Maintenance of Microbial Cooperation Mediated by Public Goods in Single- and Multiple-Trait Scenarios. J Bacteriol 2017; 199:JB.00297-17. [PMID: 28847922 DOI: 10.1128/jb.00297-17] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Microbes often form densely populated communities, which favor competitive and cooperative interactions. Cooperation among bacteria often occurs through the production of metabolically costly molecules produced by certain individuals that become available to other neighboring individuals; such molecules are called public goods. This type of cooperation is susceptible to exploitation, since nonproducers of a public good can benefit from it while saving the cost of its production (cheating), gaining a fitness advantage over producers (cooperators). Thus, in mixed cultures, cheaters can increase in frequency in the population, relative to cooperators. Sometimes, and as predicted by simple game-theoretic arguments, such increases in the frequency of cheaters cause loss of the cooperative traits by exhaustion of the public goods, eventually leading to a collapse of the entire population. In other cases, however, both cooperators and cheaters remain in coexistence. This raises the question of how cooperation is maintained in microbial populations. Several strategies to prevent cheating have been studied in the context of a single trait and a unique environmental constraint. In this review, we describe current knowledge on the evolutionary stability of microbial cooperation and discuss recent discoveries describing the mechanisms operating in multiple-trait and multiple-constraint settings. We conclude with a consideration of the consequences of these complex interactions, and we briefly discuss the potential role of social interactions involving multiple traits and multiple environmental constraints in the evolution of specialization and division of labor in microbes.
Collapse
|
22
|
Eco-evolutionary feedbacks can rescue cooperation in microbial populations. Sci Rep 2017; 7:42561. [PMID: 28211914 PMCID: PMC5304172 DOI: 10.1038/srep42561] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2016] [Accepted: 01/12/2017] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Bacterial populations whose growth depends on the cooperative production of public goods are usually threatened by the rise of cheaters that do not contribute but just consume the common resource. Minimizing cheater invasions appears then as a necessary mechanism to maintain these populations. However, that invasions result instead in the persistence of cooperation is a prospect that has yet remained largely unexplored. Here, we show that the demographic collapse induced by cheaters in the population can actually contribute to the rescue of cooperation, in a clear illustration of how ecology and evolution can influence each other. The effect is made possible by the interplay between spatial constraints and the essentiality of the shared resource. We validate this result by carefully combining theory and experiments, with the engineering of a synthetic bacterial community in which the public compound allows survival to a lethal stress. The characterization of the experimental system identifies additional factors that can matter, like the impact of the lag phase on the tolerance to stress, or the appearance of spontaneous mutants. Our work explains the unanticipated dynamics that eco-evolutionary feedbacks can generate in microbial communities, feedbacks that reveal fundamental for the adaptive change of ecosystems at all scales.
Collapse
|
23
|
Rodríguez-Torres MD, Islas-Robles Á, Gómez-Lunar Z, Delaye L, Hernández-González I, Souza V, Travisano M, Olmedo-Álvarez G. Phenotypic Microdiversity and Phylogenetic Signal Analysis of Traits Related to Social Interaction in Bacillus spp. from Sediment Communities. Front Microbiol 2017; 8:29. [PMID: 28194138 PMCID: PMC5276817 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.00029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2016] [Accepted: 01/05/2017] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding the relationship between phylogeny and predicted traits is important to uncover the dimension of the predictive power of a microbial composition approach. Numerous works have addressed the taxonomic composition of bacteria in communities, but little is known about trait heterogeneity in closely related bacteria that co-occur in communities. We evaluated a sample of 467 isolates from the Churince water system of the Cuatro Cienegas Basin (CCB), enriched for Bacillus spp. The 16S rRNA gene revealed a random distribution of taxonomic groups within this genus among 11 sampling sites. A subsample of 141 Bacillus spp. isolates from sediment, with seven well-represented species was chosen to evaluate the heterogeneity and the phylogenetic signal of phenotypic traits that are known to diverge within small clades, such as substrate utilization, and traits that are conserved deep in the lineage, such as prototrophy, swarming and biofilm formation. We were especially interested in evaluating social traits, such as swarming and biofilm formation, for which cooperation is needed to accomplish a multicellular behavior and for which there is little information from natural communities. The phylogenetic distribution of traits, evaluated by the Purvis and Fritz’s D statistics approached a Brownian model of evolution. Analysis of the phylogenetic relatedness of the clusters of members sharing the trait using consenTRAIT algorithm, revealed more clustering and deeper phylogenetic signal for prototrophy, biofilm and swimming compared to the data obtained for substrate utilization. The explanation to the observed Brownian evolution of social traits could be either loss due to complete dispensability or to compensated trait loss due to the availability of public goods. Since many of the evaluated traits can be considered to be collective action traits, such as swarming, motility and biofilm formation, the observed microdiversity within taxonomic groups might be explained by distributed functions in structured communities.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- María Dolores Rodríguez-Torres
- Laboratorio de Biología Molecular y Ecología Microbiana, Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Unidad Irapuato, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional Irapuato, México
| | - África Islas-Robles
- Laboratorio de Biología Molecular y Ecología Microbiana, Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Unidad Irapuato, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional Irapuato, México
| | - Zulema Gómez-Lunar
- Laboratorio de Biología Molecular y Ecología Microbiana, Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Unidad Irapuato, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional Irapuato, México
| | - Luis Delaye
- Laboratorio de Biología Molecular y Ecología Microbiana, Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Unidad Irapuato, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional Irapuato, México
| | - Ismael Hernández-González
- Laboratorio de Biología Molecular y Ecología Microbiana, Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Unidad Irapuato, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional Irapuato, México
| | - Valeria Souza
- Laboratorio de Evolución Molecular y Experimental, Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Mexico City, México
| | - Michael Travisano
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul MN, USA
| | - Gabriela Olmedo-Álvarez
- Laboratorio de Biología Molecular y Ecología Microbiana, Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Unidad Irapuato, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional Irapuato, México
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Nickzad A, Déziel E. Adaptive Significance of Quorum Sensing-Dependent Regulation of Rhamnolipids by Integration of Growth Rate in Burkholderia glumae: A Trade-Off between Survival and Efficiency. Front Microbiol 2016; 7:1215. [PMID: 27540372 PMCID: PMC4972832 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.01215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2016] [Accepted: 07/21/2016] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Quorum sensing (QS) is a cell density-dependent mechanism which enables a population of bacteria to coordinate cooperative behaviors in response to the accumulation of self-produced autoinducer signals in their local environment. An emerging framework is that the adaptive significance of QS in the regulation of production of costly extracellular metabolites ("public goods") is to maintain the homeostasis of cooperation. We investigated this model using the phytopathogenic bacterium Burkholderia glumae, which we have previously demonstrated uses QS to regulate the production of rhamnolipids, extracellular surface-active glycolipids promoting the social behavior called "swarming motility." Using mass spectrometric quantification and chromosomal lux-based gene expression, we made the unexpected finding that when unrestricted nutrient resources are provided, production of rhamnolipids is carried out completely independently of QS regulation. This is a unique observation among known QS-controlled factors in bacteria. On the other hand, under nutrient-limited conditions, QS then becomes the main regulating mechanism, significantly enhancing the specific rhamnolipids yield. Accordingly, decreasing nutrient concentrations amplifies rhamnolipid biosynthesis gene expression, revealing a system where QS-dependent regulation is specifically triggered by the growth rate of the population, rather than by its cell density. Furthermore, a gradual increase in QS signal specific concentration upon decrease of specific growth rate suggests a reduction in quorum threshold, which reflects an increase in cellular demand for production of QS-dependent target gene product at low density populations. Integration of growth rate with QS as a decision-making mechanism for biosynthesis of costly metabolites, such as rhamnolipids, could serve to assess the demand and timing for expanding the carrying capacity of a population through spatial expansion mechanisms, such as swarming motility, thus promoting the chances of survival, even if the cell density might not be high enough for an otherwise efficient production of rhamnolipids. In conclusion, we propose that the adaptive significance of growth rate-dependent functionality of QS in biosynthesis of costly public goods lies within providing a regulatory mechanism for selecting the optimal trade-off between survival and efficiency.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Eric Déziel
- Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique – Institut Armand-Frappier, LavalQC, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Xavier JB. Sociomicrobiology and Pathogenic Bacteria. Microbiol Spectr 2016; 4:10.1128/microbiolspec.VMBF-0019-2015. [PMID: 27337482 PMCID: PMC4920084 DOI: 10.1128/microbiolspec.vmbf-0019-2015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2015] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The study of microbial pathogenesis has been primarily a reductionist science since Koch's principles. Reductionist approaches are essential to identify the causal agents of infectious disease, their molecular mechanisms of action, and potential drug targets, and much of medicine's success in the treatment of infectious disease stems from that approach. But many bacteria-caused diseases cannot be explained by a single bacterium. Several aspects of bacterial pathogenesis will benefit from a more holistic approach that takes into account social interaction among bacteria of the same species and between species in consortia such as the human microbiome. The emerging discipline of sociomicrobiology provides a framework to dissect microbial interactions in single and multi-species communities without compromising mechanistic detail. The study of bacterial pathogenesis can benefit greatly from incorporating concepts from other disciplines such as social evolution theory and microbial ecology, where communities, their interactions with hosts, and with the environment play key roles.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Joao B. Xavier
- Program for Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, Box 460, New York, NY 10065,
| |
Collapse
|
26
|
Quorum sensing protects bacterial co-operation from exploitation by cheats. ISME JOURNAL 2016; 10:1706-16. [PMID: 26744811 PMCID: PMC4918439 DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2015.232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2015] [Revised: 10/15/2015] [Accepted: 11/02/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Quorum sensing (QS) is a cell–cell communication system found in many bacterial species, commonly controlling secreted co-operative traits, including extracellular digestive enzymes. We show that the canonical QS regulatory architecture allows bacteria to sense the genotypic composition of high-density populations, and limit co-operative investments to social environments enriched for co-operators. Using high-density populations of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa we map per-capita signal and co-operative enzyme investment in the wild type as a function of the frequency of non-responder cheats. We demonstrate mathematically and experimentally that the observed response rule of ‘co-operate when surrounded by co-operators' allows bacteria to match their investment in co-operation to the composition of the group, therefore allowing the maintenance of co-operation at lower levels of population structuring (that is, lower relatedness). Similar behavioural responses have been described in vertebrates under the banner of ‘generalised reciprocity'. Our results suggest that mechanisms of reciprocity are not confined to taxa with advanced cognition, and can be implemented at the cellular level via positive feedback circuits.
Collapse
|
27
|
Facultative control of matrix production optimizes competitive fitness in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14 biofilm models. Appl Environ Microbiol 2015; 81:8414-26. [PMID: 26431965 DOI: 10.1128/aem.02628-15] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2015] [Accepted: 09/25/2015] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
As biofilms grow, resident cells inevitably face the challenge of resource limitation. In the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14, electron acceptor availability affects matrix production and, as a result, biofilm morphogenesis. The secreted matrix polysaccharide Pel is required for pellicle formation and for colony wrinkling, two activities that promote access to O2. We examined the exploitability and evolvability of Pel production at the air-liquid interface (during pellicle formation) and on solid surfaces (during colony formation). Although Pel contributes to the developmental response to electron acceptor limitation in both biofilm formation regimes, we found variation in the exploitability of its production and necessity for competitive fitness between the two systems. The wild type showed a competitive advantage against a non-Pel-producing mutant in pellicles but no advantage in colonies. Adaptation to the pellicle environment selected for mutants with a competitive advantage against the wild type in pellicles but also caused a severe disadvantage in colonies, even in wrinkled colony centers. Evolution in the colony center produced divergent phenotypes, while adaptation to the colony edge produced mutants with clear competitive advantages against the wild type in this O2-replete niche. In general, the structurally heterogeneous colony environment promoted more diversification than the more homogeneous pellicle. These results suggest that the role of Pel in community structure formation in response to electron acceptor limitation is unique to specific biofilm models and that the facultative control of Pel production is required for PA14 to maintain optimum benefit in different types of communities.
Collapse
|
28
|
Han TA, Pereira LM, Lenaerts T. Avoiding or restricting defectors in public goods games? J R Soc Interface 2015; 12:rsif.2014.1203. [PMID: 25540240 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2014.1203] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
When creating a public good, strategies or mechanisms are required to handle defectors. We first show mathematically and numerically that prior agreements with posterior compensations provide a strategic solution that leads to substantial levels of cooperation in the context of public goods games, results that are corroborated by available experimental data. Notwithstanding this success, one cannot, as with other approaches, fully exclude the presence of defectors, raising the question of how they can be dealt with to avoid the demise of the common good. We show that both avoiding creation of the common good, whenever full agreement is not reached, and limiting the benefit that disagreeing defectors can acquire, using costly restriction mechanisms, are relevant choices. Nonetheless, restriction mechanisms are found the more favourable, especially in larger group interactions. Given decreasing restriction costs, introducing restraining measures to cope with public goods free-riding issues is the ultimate advantageous solution for all participants, rather than avoiding its creation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- The Anh Han
- AI lab, Computer Science Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium MLG, Département d'Informatique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard du Triomphe CP212, 1050 Brussels, Belgium School of Computing, Teesside University, Borough Road, Middlesbrough TS1 3BA, UK
| | - Luís Moniz Pereira
- Centro de Inteligência Artificial (CENTRIA), Departamento de Informática, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
| | - Tom Lenaerts
- AI lab, Computer Science Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium MLG, Département d'Informatique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard du Triomphe CP212, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| |
Collapse
|
29
|
Boyle KE, Monaco H, van Ditmarsch D, Deforet M, Xavier JB. Integration of Metabolic and Quorum Sensing Signals Governing the Decision to Cooperate in a Bacterial Social Trait. PLoS Comput Biol 2015; 11:e1004279. [PMID: 26102206 PMCID: PMC4477906 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2015] [Accepted: 04/11/2015] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Many unicellular organisms live in multicellular communities that rely on cooperation between cells. However, cooperative traits are vulnerable to exploitation by non-cooperators (cheaters). We expand our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that allow multicellular systems to remain robust in the face of cheating by dissecting the dynamic regulation of cooperative rhamnolipids required for swarming in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We combine mathematical modeling and experiments to quantitatively characterize the integration of metabolic and population density signals (quorum sensing) governing expression of the rhamnolipid synthesis operon rhlAB. The combined computational/experimental analysis reveals that when nutrients are abundant, rhlAB promoter activity increases gradually in a density dependent way. When growth slows down due to nutrient limitation, rhlAB promoter activity can stop abruptly, decrease gradually or even increase depending on whether the growth-limiting nutrient is the carbon source, nitrogen source or iron. Starvation by specific nutrients drives growth on intracellular nutrient pools as well as the qualitative rhlAB promoter response, which itself is modulated by quorum sensing. Our quantitative analysis suggests a supply-driven activation that integrates metabolic prudence with quorum sensing in a non-digital manner and allows P. aeruginosa cells to invest in cooperation only when the population size is large enough (quorum sensing) and individual cells have enough metabolic resources to do so (metabolic prudence). Thus, the quantitative description of rhlAB regulatory dynamics brings a greater understating to the regulation required to make swarming cooperation stable. Although bacteria are not multicellular organisms, they commonly live in large communities and engage in many cooperative behaviors. Cooperation can allow bacteria to access additional nutrients, but it requires the secretion of products that will be shared by the community. How bacteria make the molecular decision to cooperate within a community is still not completely understood. The bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa regulates the secretion of one of these shared products, rhamnolipids, using information about population density and nutrient availability in its environment. Expression of the operon rhlAB is required for the bacteria to produce rhamnolipids. We use a combined computational and experimental approach to investigate how P. aeruginosa continually combines current information of population density and nutrient availability to determine if it should express rhlAB. We find that when conditions are nutrient rich, P. aeruginosa uses population density to modulate the amount rhlAB expression, however when the bacteria are starved for nutrients the starvation condition largely determines how the bacteria will express rhlAB. Because the bacteria continually adjust expression based on the current conditions, the molecular decision to produce rhamnolipids can be adjusted if either population density or nutrient conditions change. Our combined computational and experimental approach sheds new light on the rich regulatory dynamics that govern a cellular decision to cooperate.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kerry E. Boyle
- Program in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, New York, New York, United States of America
- Program in Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Hilary Monaco
- Program in Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, United States of America
- Tri-Institutional Training Program in Computational Biology and Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Dave van Ditmarsch
- Program in Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Maxime Deforet
- Program in Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Joao B. Xavier
- Program in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, New York, New York, United States of America
- Program in Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, United States of America
- Tri-Institutional Training Program in Computational Biology and Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| |
Collapse
|
30
|
Vinod Kumar K, Lall C, Raj RV, Vedhagiri K, Vijayachari P. Coexistence and survival of pathogenic leptospires by formation of biofilm withAzospirillum. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 2015; 91:fiv051. [DOI: 10.1093/femsec/fiv051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/05/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
|
31
|
Buonaurio R, Moretti C, da Silva DP, Cortese C, Ramos C, Venturi V. The olive knot disease as a model to study the role of interspecies bacterial communities in plant disease. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2015; 6:434. [PMID: 26113855 PMCID: PMC4461811 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2015.00434] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2015] [Accepted: 05/27/2015] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
There is an increasing interest in studying interspecies bacterial interactions in diseases of animals and plants as it is believed that the great majority of bacteria found in nature live in complex communities. Plant pathologists have thus far mainly focused on studies involving single species or on their interactions with antagonistic competitors. A bacterial disease used as model to study multispecies interactions is the olive knot disease, caused by Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. savastanoi (Psv). Knots caused by Psv in branches and other aerial parts of the olive trees are an ideal niche not only for the pathogen but also for many other plant-associated bacterial species, mainly belonging to the genera Pantoea, Pectobacterium, Erwinia, and Curtobacterium. The non-pathogenic bacterial species Erwinia toletana, Pantoea agglomerans, and Erwinia oleae, which are frequently isolated inside the olive knots, cooperate with Psv in modulating the disease severity. Co-inoculations of these species with Psv result in bigger knots and better bacterial colonization when compared to single inoculations. Moreover, harmless bacteria co-localize with the pathogen inside the knots, indicating the formation of stable bacterial consortia that may facilitate the exchange of quorum sensing signals and metabolites. Here we discuss the possible role of bacterial communities in the establishment and development of olive knot disease, which we believe could be taking place in many other bacterial plant diseases.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Roberto Buonaurio
- Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
- *Correspondence: Roberto Buonaurio, Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Via Borgo XX Giugno, 74 06121 Perugia, Italy,
| | - Chiaraluce Moretti
- Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
| | | | - Chiara Cortese
- Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
| | - Cayo Ramos
- Instituto de Hortofruticultura Subtropical y Mediterránea La Mayora, Universidad de Málaga-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Málaga, Spain
| | - Vittorio Venturi
- Bacteriology Group, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Trieste, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
32
|
Abstract
The fight against cancer has drawn researchers from a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from molecular biology to physics, but the perspective of an ecological theorist has been mostly overlooked. By thinking about the cells that make up a tumour as an endangered species, cancer vulnerabilities become more apparent. Studies in conservation biology and microbial experiments indicate that extinction is a complex phenomenon, which is often driven by the interaction of ecological and evolutionary processes. Recent advances in cancer research have shown that tumours, like species striving for survival, harbour intricate population dynamics, which suggests the possibility to exploit the ecology of tumours for treatment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kirill S Korolev
- Bioinformatics Program, Boston University, 44 Cummington Mall, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
| | - Joao B Xavier
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Computational Biology Program, New York, New York, USA
| | - Jeff Gore
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 400 Technology Square, NE46-609 Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| |
Collapse
|
33
|
Deforet M, van Ditmarsch D, Carmona-Fontaine C, Xavier JB. Hyperswarming adaptations in a bacterium improve collective motility without enhancing single cell motility. SOFT MATTER 2014; 10:2405-13. [PMID: 24622509 PMCID: PMC3955847 DOI: 10.1039/c3sm53127a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a monoflagellated bacterium that can use its single polar flagellum to swim through liquids and move collectively over semisolid surfaces, a behavior called swarming. Previous studies have shown that experimental evolution in swarming colonies leads to the selection of hyperswarming bacteria with multiple flagella. Here we show that the advantage of such hyperswarmer mutants cannot be explained simply by an increase in the raw swimming speed of individual bacteria in liquids. Cell tracking of time-lapse microscopy to quantify single-cell swimming patterns reveals that both wild-type and hyperswarmers alternate between forward and backward runs, rather than doing the run-and-tumble characteristic of enteric bacteria such as E. coli. High-throughput measurement of swimming speeds reveals that hyperswarmers do not swim faster than wild-type in liquid. Wild-type reverses swimming direction in sharp turns without a significant impact on its speed, whereas multiflagellated hyperswarmers tend to alternate fast and slow runs and have wider turning angles. Nonetheless, macroscopic measurement of swimming and swarming speed in colonies shows that hyperswarmers expand faster than wild-type on surfaces and through soft agar matrices. A mathematical model explains how wider turning angles lead to faster spreading when swimming through agar. Our study describes for the first time the swimming patterns in multiflagellated P. aeruginosa mutants and reveals that collective and individual motility in bacteria are not necessarily correlated. Understanding bacterial adaptations to surface motility, such as hyperswarming, requires a collective behavior approach.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maxime Deforet
- Program in Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
34
|
Ross-Gillespie A, Kümmerli R. Collective decision-making in microbes. Front Microbiol 2014; 5:54. [PMID: 24624121 PMCID: PMC3939447 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2014.00054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2013] [Accepted: 01/27/2014] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Microbes are intensely social organisms that routinely cooperate and coordinate their activities to express elaborate population level phenotypes. Such coordination requires a process of collective decision-making, in which individuals detect and collate information not only from their physical environment, but also from their social environment, in order to arrive at an appropriately calibrated response. Here, we present a conceptual overview of collective decision-making as it applies to all group-living organisms; we introduce key concepts and principles developed in the context of animal and human group decisions; and we discuss, with appropriate examples, the applicability of each of these concepts in microbial contexts. In particular, we discuss the roles of information pooling, control skew, speed vs. accuracy trade-offs, local feedbacks, quorum thresholds, conflicts of interest, and the reliability of social information. We conclude that collective decision-making in microbes shares many features with collective decision-making in higher taxa, and we call for greater integration between this fledgling field and other allied areas of research, including in the humanities and the physical sciences.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Adin Ross-Gillespie
- Microbial Evolutionary Ecology, Institute of Plant Biology, University of Zürich Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Rolf Kümmerli
- Microbial Evolutionary Ecology, Institute of Plant Biology, University of Zürich Zürich, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
35
|
Deng P, de Vargas Roditi L, van Ditmarsch D, Xavier JB. The ecological basis of morphogenesis: branching patterns in swarming colonies of bacteria. NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS 2014; 16:015006-15006. [PMID: 24587694 PMCID: PMC3935381 DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/16/1/015006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Understanding how large-scale shapes in tissues, organs and bacterial colonies emerge from local interactions among cells and how these shapes remain stable over time are two fundamental problems in biology. Here we investigate branching morphogenesis in an experimental model system, swarming colonies of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We combine experiments and computer simulation to show that a simple ecological model of population dispersal can describe the emergence of branching patterns. In our system, morphogenesis depends on two counteracting processes that act on different length-scales: (1) colony expansion, which increases the likelihood of colonizing a patch at a close distance and (2) colony repulsion, which decreases the colonization likelihood over a longer distance. The two processes are included in a kernel based mathematical model using an integro-differential approach borrowed from ecological theory. Computer simulations show that the model can indeed reproduce branching, but only for a narrow range of parameter values, suggesting that P. aeruginosa has a fine-tuned physiology for branching. Simulations further show that hyperswarming, a process where highly dispersive mutants reproducibly arise within the colony and disrupt branching patterns, can be interpreted as a change in the spatial kernel.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Pan Deng
- Program in Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York NY, USA
| | - Laura de Vargas Roditi
- Program in Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York NY, USA
| | - Dave van Ditmarsch
- Program in Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York NY, USA
| | - Joao B. Xavier
- Program in Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York NY, USA
| |
Collapse
|