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Why do bacteria regulate public goods by quorum sensing?-How the shapes of cost and benefit functions determine the form of optimal regulation.

ABSTRACT: Many bacteria secrete compounds which act as public goods. Such compounds are often under quorum sensing (QS) regulation, yet it is not understood exactly when bacteria may gain from having a public good under QS regulation. Here, we show that the optimal public good production rate per cell as a function of population size (the optimal production curve, OPC) depends crucially on the cost and benefit functions of the public good and that the OPC will fall into one of two categories: Either it is continuous or it jumps from zero discontinuously at a critical population size. If, e.g., the public good has accelerating returns and linear cost, then the OPC is discontinuous and the best strategy thus to ramp up production sharply at a precise population size. By using the example of public goods with accelerating and diminishing returns (and linear cost) we are able to determine how the two different categories of OPSs can best be matched by production regulated through a QS signal feeding back on its own production. We find that the optimal QS parameters are different for the two categories and specifically that public goods which provide accelerating returns, call for stronger positive signal feedback.

SUBMITTER: Heilmann S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4517451 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Why do bacteria regulate public goods by quorum sensing?-How the shapes of cost and benefit functions determine the form of optimal regulation.

Heilmann Silja S Krishna Sandeep S Kerr Benjamin B

Frontiers in microbiology 20150728

Many bacteria secrete compounds which act as public goods. Such compounds are often under quorum sensing (QS) regulation, yet it is not understood exactly when bacteria may gain from having a public good under QS regulation. Here, we show that the optimal public good production rate per cell as a function of population size (the optimal production curve, OPC) depends crucially on the cost and benefit functions of the public good and that the OPC will fall into one of two categories: Either it is ...[more]

PMID: 26284049

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Project description:From the microscopic to the macroscopic level, biological life exhibits directed migration in response to environmental conditions. Chemotaxis enables microbes to sense and move towards nutrient-rich regions or to avoid toxic ones. Socio-economic factors drive human populations from rural to urban areas. The effect of collective movement is especially significant when triggered in response to the generation of public goods. Microbial communities can, for instance, alter their environment through the secretion of extracellular substances. Some substances provide antibiotic-resistance, others provide access to nutrients or promote motility. However, in all cases the maintenance of public goods requires costly cooperation and is consequently susceptible to exploitation. The threat of exploitation becomes even more acute with motile individuals because defectors can avoid the consequences of their cheating. Here, we propose a model to investigate the effects of targeted migration and analyze the interplay between social conflicts and migration in ecological public goods. In particular, individuals can locate attractive regions by moving towards higher cooperator densities or avoid unattractive regions by moving away from defectors. Both migration patterns not only shape an individual's immediate environment but also affects the entire population. For example, defectors hunting cooperators have a homogenizing effect on population densities. This limits the production of the public good and hence inhibits the growth of the population. In contrast, aggregating cooperators promote the spontaneous formation of patterns through heterogeneous density distributions. The positive feedback between cooperator aggregation and public goods production, however, poses analytical and numerical challenges due to its tendency to develop discontinuous distributions. Thus, different modes of directed migration bear the potential to enhance or inhibit the emergence of complex and sometimes dynamic spatial arrangements. Interestingly, whenever patterns emerge, cooperation is promoted, on average, population densities rise, and the risk of extinction is reduced.

Dataset Information

Why do bacteria regulate public goods by quorum sensing?-How the shapes of cost and benefit functions determine the form of optimal regulation.

Publications

Why do bacteria regulate public goods by quorum sensing?-How the shapes of cost and benefit functions determine the form of optimal regulation.

Similar Datasets

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