Cheating in the Viral World

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Cheating in the Viral World Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 12 June 2019 doi:10.20944/preprints201906.0106.v1 Cheating in the viral world Asher Leeks1, , Melanie Ghoul1, , and Stuart A. West1, 1Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK The extent to which cheating occurs in the natural world has ferent viruses, we can study the natural dynamics of cheat proved contentious. We suggest that viruses offer an excep- populations in parallel across a broad range of viruses and tional opportunity for studying cheats, individuals that exploit hosts. Furthermore, viruses are excellent candidates for ex- the cooperative behaviour of others. In particular, we show that: perimental evolution studies, since they evolve quickly in the (1) cheating is common in viruses; (2) there are many different lab and allow a range of experimental manipulations (Elena types of viral cheat; (3) viral cheats offer novel problems for so- & Sanjuán, 2007). This potentially allows us to document the cial evolution theory; (4) viruses offer excellent empirical oppor- full evolutionary process, from genetic basis to population tunities for studying cheating; (5) cheating shows that viral pop- ulations experience substantial conflict, changing how we think dynamics in the wild (Barrett et al., 2019). Viruses therefore about how viral infections evolve; (6) evolutionary theory about offer an excellent opportunity to test fundamental ideas about cheating could help us understand viral evolution; (7) a greater the evolution of cheating and cooperation, many of which understanding of cheating in viruses could aid viral intervention were originally developed with animal behaviour in mind. strategies. We first define cheating, and provide a detailed example of how this definition can be applied to viruses. We argue that virus evolution | cheat | cooperation | social evolution | defective interfering genome | satellite virus the biology of viruses could lead to cheating being much Correspondence: [email protected] more common in viruses than in some other taxa, such as multicellular animals. We then use our definition of cheat- ing as a framework to identify and classify different kinds of Introduction cheating in the viral world. We cover known examples, and suggest where further cheats may be found. Finally, we dis- The existence of cooperation provides an opportunity for cuss how studying cheating in viruses could challenge and cheats to evolve, that spread by exploiting cooperation (West extend social evolution theory, and how applying ideas from et al., 2007a; Ghoul et al., 2013; Jones et al., 2015). Given social evolution could be useful in virology. that cooperation occurs at all levels of biology, from genes to complex animal societies, then this allows the possibility for cheating at all levels of biology (Maynard Smith & Szath- What is a cheat? mary, 1995; Bourke, 2011). However, the extent to which Cheats are selfish individuals that avoid paying the costs of cheating occurs in nature has proved contentious, leading cooperation but still benefit from the cooperation of other in- some authors to suggest that it is more important in theory dividuals (Ghoul et al., 2013). One example is brood par- than in reality (Ghoul et al., 2013; Jones et al., 2015; Freder- asites such as the cuckoo, where individuals of one species ickson, 2017). trick parents of a different species into neglecting their We suggest that viruses offer an exceptional opportunity for own chicks and instead feeding the brood parasite’s chicks studying cheating in the natural world. Viruses cooperateDRAFT in (Davies, 2010). Another example is individuals in the bac- a number of ways, and a range of different viral cheats ex- terial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa which do not pro- ist, that exploit these different forms of cooperation (Díaz- duce siderophores (iron-scavenging molecules) (Griffin et al., Muñoz et al., 2017). For example, viruses that exploit gene 2004; Cordero et al., 2012; Andersen et al., 2015). The pro- products produced by others, or viruses that grow unsustain- duction of siderophores is a costly cooperative behaviour be- ably fast. Furthermore, viral cheats can span different evolu- cause individuals pay a cost to produce siderophores, but the tionary timescales. While some viral cheats originate rapidly benefits of siderophores are experienced by the group of bac- in new infections but do not persist, others persist over evolu- teria as a whole (a public good). Some cells do not produce tionary timescales and become closely adapted to exploiting siderophores, but retain the ability to uptake siderophores others. Finally, viral cheats seem to have particularly devas- produced by others, and so act as cheats. tating effects on the fitness of cooperator viruses, suggesting that there is the potential for strong selection pressures driv- ing coevolution between cooperators and cheats. Testing for cheats Viruses also offer a number of practical advantages for study- To count as a cheat, an individual must exploit a coopera- ing cheating. The wealth of publicly available sequencing tive behaviour (Ghoul et al., 2013; Jones et al., 2015). Given data means that we can study the evolutionary dynamics of that a viral genome can potentially exploit products encoded viral cheats in nature (Firth & Lipkin, 2013; Geoghegan & by another genome, we consider a genome as an individual, Holmes, 2018). Because cheats arise de novo in many dif- and ask whether viral genomes can cheat (Díaz-Muñoz et al., © 2019 by the author(s). Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY license. Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 12 June 2019 doi:10.20944/preprints201906.0106.v1 ports progeny viral sequences to new cells. Capsid proteins encoded by one viral genome can produce capsids that can potentially contain other viral genomes, and so they can be a public good (Fig. 2). Consequently, a viral sequence could potentially be a cheat if: (i) it lacks the genes for encoding capsid proteins itself; and: (ii) it is able to exploit capsids constructed by proteins encoded by other sequences. A simi- lar line of argument applies to a number of other viral genes, including proteins that suppress host cell defences (Fig. 2). Any viral gene that can be complemented in trans can poten- tially be cheated. There are multiple reasons why mutants lacking these func- Fig. 1. Testing for cheats. In order for an entity to be classified as tions may gain a replicative advantage over cooperative wild- a cheat, it must (a) be less fit than the cooperator when each are type viruses, and therefore act as cheats (Fig. 3). The sim- grown alone; and (b) be more fit than the cooperator when both plest reason is that shorter genome sequences may accu- are grown together in mixture. In many cases, theory predicts mulate more quickly inside a cell because the shorter a se- that cheats will be most fit when they are rare, and least fit when quence is, the more copies can be produced by a replicase in they are common. a given amount of time (Spiegelman et al., 1965; Mills et al., 1967). Alternatively, because they don’t produce coopera- 2017). The first step in testing for this is to compare the tive gene products, they can allocate more time towards repli- growth rates of potential cooperators and cheats on their own cating copies of themselves (Holland, 1985; Chao & Elena, and in mixture (Fig. 1). For example, genomes that do and 2017). Another example is that cheats may replace coop- do not encode a cooperative trait such as a replicase. If one erative genes with sequences that increase their affinity for genome is a cooperator, and another is a cheat, then: (i) the binding to replicase, allowing them to out-compete the wild- cooperator will have a higher growth rate when grown on its type cooperators for a limited supply of replicases (Lee & own, but (ii) the cheat will have a higher growth rate when Nathans, 1979). Most of these advantages come about by both are grown together (Fig. 1). These results follow from allowing cheats to escape constraints on viral genome sizes. the fact that cooperation provides a benefit at the group level, Consequently, cheats may be more likely to gain a large ad- but can also be exploited by cheats that avoid the costs of vantage in RNA viruses, which are highly constrained by cooperating. their small maximum genome size (Holmes, 2003; Belshaw et al., 2008). When testing for cheats, it is important to rule out alterna- tive explanations for the different growth rates of the two A clear example of cheating exists in defective interfering strains. For example, a cooperator’s growth rate will be genomes of poliovirus. When poliovirus is grown under con- slow if grown in conditions under which cooperation is not ditions allowing for frequent multiple infections, defective favoured. Therefore, it is important to conduct a test for interfering mutants can emerge (Cole et al., 1971). One such cheating in conditions that reflect the natural environment mutant, ‘DI PV1’ contains a deletion consisting of the en- that cheats and cooperators evolve in as faithfully as possi- tire capsid protein region (Shirogane et al., 2019). When ble. In particular, conditions where the cooperative trait be- grown on its own, this mutant is unable to package progeny ing examined is required and beneficial (Ghoul et al., 2013, sequences into virions. However, when cooperator and de- 2014). DRAFTfective interfering genome are grown together, the defec- tive interfering genome can exploit the capsid proteins pro- duced by the cooperator, achieving more than 1,000 times as How could viruses cheat? many genomes inside virions as the cooperator (Shirogane et al., 2019). In this example, the shorter defective inter- In viruses, completing an infection cycle inside a host cell can fering “cheat” genome has advantages at two stages of the be a cooperative process.
Recommended publications
  • Major Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality COLLOQUIUM
    PAPER Major evolutionary transitions in individuality COLLOQUIUM Stuart A. Westa,b,1, Roberta M. Fishera, Andy Gardnerc, and E. Toby Kiersd aDepartment of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom; bMagdalen College, Oxford OX1 4AU, United Kingdom; cSchool of Biology, University of St. Andrews, Dyers Brae, St. Andrews KY16 9TH, United Kingdom; and dInstitute of Ecological Sciences, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Edited by John P. McCutcheon, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, and accepted by the Editorial Board March 13, 2015 (received for review December 7, 2014) The evolution of life on earth has been driven by a small number broken down into six questions. We explore what is already known of major evolutionary transitions. These transitions have been about the factors facilitating transitions, examining the extent to characterized by individuals that could previously replicate inde- which we can generalize across the different transitions. Ultimately, pendently, cooperating to form a new, more complex life form. we are interested in the underlying evolutionary and ecological For example, archaea and eubacteria formed eukaryotic cells, and factors that drive major transitions. cells formed multicellular organisms. However, not all cooperative Defining Major Transitions groups are en route to major transitions. How can we explain why major evolutionary transitions have or haven’t taken place on dif- A major evolutionary transition has been most broadly defined as a change in the way that heritable information is stored and ferent branches of the tree of life? We break down major transi- transmitted (2). We focus on the major transitions that lead to a tions into two steps: the formation of a cooperative group and the new form of individual (Table 1), where the same problems arise, transformation of that group into an integrated entity.
    [Show full text]
  • Comparative Methods Offer Powerful Insights Into Social Evolution in Bees Sarah Kocher, Robert Paxton
    Comparative methods offer powerful insights into social evolution in bees Sarah Kocher, Robert Paxton To cite this version: Sarah Kocher, Robert Paxton. Comparative methods offer powerful insights into social evolution in bees. Apidologie, Springer Verlag, 2014, 45 (3), pp.289-305. 10.1007/s13592-014-0268-3. hal- 01234748 HAL Id: hal-01234748 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01234748 Submitted on 27 Nov 2015 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Apidologie (2014) 45:289–305 Review article * INRA, DIB and Springer-Verlag France, 2014 DOI: 10.1007/s13592-014-0268-3 Comparative methods offer powerful insights into social evolution in bees 1 2 Sarah D. KOCHER , Robert J. PAXTON 1Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA 2Institute for Biology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany Received 9 September 2013 – Revised 8 December 2013 – Accepted 2 January 2014 Abstract – Bees are excellent models for studying the evolution of sociality. While most species are solitary, many form social groups. The most complex form of social behavior, eusociality, has arisen independently four times within the bees.
    [Show full text]
  • Cheaters Must Prosper: Reconciling Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives on Cheating in Mutualism
    Ecology Letters, (2015) 18: 1270–1284 doi: 10.1111/ele.12507 REVIEW AND SYNTHESIS Cheaters must prosper: reconciling theoretical and empirical perspectives on cheating in mutualism Abstract Emily I. Jones,1,2,3† Cheating is a focal concept in the study of mutualism, with the majority of researchers considering Michelle E. Afkhami,4 Erol Akßcay,5 cheating to be both prevalent and highly damaging. However, current definitions of cheating do Judith L. Bronstein,6 Redouan not reliably capture the evolutionary threat that has been a central motivation for the study of Bshary,7 Megan E. Frederickson,4 cheating. We describe the development of the cheating concept and distill a relative-fitness-based Katy D. Heath,8 Jason D. definition of cheating that encapsulates the evolutionary threat posed by cheating, i.e. that chea- Hoeksema,9 Joshua H. Ness,10 ters will spread and erode the benefits of mutualism. We then describe experiments required to 11 conclude that cheating is occurring and to quantify fitness conflict more generally. Next, we dis- M. Sabrina Pankey, Stephanie S. ‡ cuss how our definition and methods can generate comparability and integration of theory and Porter,12 Joel L. Sachs,12 Klara experiments, which are currently divided by their respective prioritisations of fitness consequences Scharnagl13 and Maren L. and traits. To evaluate the current empirical evidence for cheating, we review the literature on sev- Friesen13*,† eral of the best-studied mutualisms. We find that although there are numerous observations of low-quality partners, there is currently very little support from fitness data that any of these meet our criteria to be considered cheaters.
    [Show full text]
  • The Personality Behind Cheating: Behavioural Types and the Feeding Ecology of Cleaner Fish Alexander D
    ethologyinternational journal of behavioural biology Ethology The Personality Behind Cheating: Behavioural Types and the Feeding Ecology of Cleaner Fish Alexander D. M. Wilson*†, Jens Krause†‡, James E. Herbert-Read§ & Ashley J. W. Ward¶ * Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada † Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany ‡ Department for Crop and Animal Sciences, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany § Mathematics Department, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden ¶ School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia Correspondence Abstract Alexander D. M. Wilson, Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON The complex mutualistic relationship between the cleaner fish (Labroides K1S5B6, Canada. dimidiatus) and their ‘clients’ in many reef systems throughout the world E-mail: [email protected] has been the subject of debate and research interest for decades. Game- theory models have long struggled with explaining how the mixed strate- Received: February 8, 2014 gies of cheating and honesty might have evolved in such a system and Initial acceptance: April 6, 2014 while significant efforts have been made theoretically, demonstrating the Final acceptance: May 4, 2014 nature of this relationship empirically remains an important research (W. Koenig) challenge. Using the experimental framework of behavioural syndromes, we sought to quantitatively assess the relationship between personality doi: 10.1111/eth.12262 and the feeding ecology of cleaner fish to provide novel insights into the Keywords: mutualism, behavioural underlying mechanistic basis of cheating in cleaner-client interactions. syndromes, Labroides dimidiatus, First, we observed and filmed cleaner fish interactions with heterospecif- personality, game theory, boldness ics, movement patterns and general feeding ecology in the wild.
    [Show full text]
  • The Evolutionary Ecology of Cheating: Does Superficial Oviposition
    Ecological Entomology (2008), 33, 765–770 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2311.2008.01031.x The evolutionary ecology of cheating: does superfi cial oviposition facilitate the evolution of a cheater yucca moth? KARI A. SEGRAVES 1 , DAVID M. ALTHOFF 1 a n d O L L E P E L L M Y R 2 1 Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, U.S.A. and 2 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Life Sciences South, Moscow, Idaho, U.S.A. Abstract . 1. A major question in the study of mutualism is to understand how mutualists may revert to antagonists that exploit the mutualism (i.e. switch to cheating ). In the classic pollination mutualism between yuccas and yucca moths, the cheater moth Tegeticula intermedia is sister to the pollinator moth T. cassandra . These moth species have similar ovipositor morphology, but T. intermedia emerges later, oviposits into fruit rather than flowers, and does not pollinate. 2. We tested if the pollinator, T. cassandra , was pre-adapted to evolve a cheater lineage by comparing its emergence and oviposition behaviour on yucca fruit to a distantly related pollinator, T. yuccasella , that differs in ovipositor morphology and oviposition behaviour. We predicted that if T. cassandra was pre-adapted to cheat, then these pollinators would emerge later and be able to oviposit into fruit in contrast to T. yuccasella . 3. Contrary to expectations, a common garden-rearing experiment demonstrated that emergence of T. cassandra was not significantly delayed relative to T. yuccasella . Moth emergence patterns overlapped broadly. 4. No choice oviposition experiments with female moths demonstrated that both pollinator species attempted to oviposit into fruit, but only T.
    [Show full text]
  • Worker Thelytoky Allows Requeening of Orphaned Colonies but Increases
    Worker thelytoky allows requeening of orphaned colonies but increases susceptibility to reproductive cheating in an ant Claudie Doums, Pierre Federici, Pascaline Chifflet-Belle, Thibaud Monnin To cite this version: Claudie Doums, Pierre Federici, Pascaline Chifflet-Belle, Thibaud Monnin. Worker thelytoky allows requeening of orphaned colonies but increases susceptibility to reproductive cheating in an ant. Animal Behaviour, Elsevier Masson, 2018, 135, pp.109-119. 10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.11.013. hal-01730713 HAL Id: hal-01730713 https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01730713 Submitted on 13 Mar 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 1 Worker thelytoky allows requeening of orphaned colonies but increases susceptibility to 2 reproductive cheating in an ant 3 4 5 Claudie Doums12, Pierre Fédérici3, Pascaline Chifflet-Belle12, Thibaud Monnin3 6 7 1 Institut de Systématique, Evolution et Biodiversité, UMR 7205, EPHE, CNRS, MNHN, 8 UPMC Univ Paris 06, Sorbonne Universités, Paris, France 9 2 PSL Research University, EPHE, Paris, France 10 3 Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences of Paris UMR 7618, CNRS, Sorbonne 11 Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Paris, France 12 13 14 Corresponding author: Claudie Doums 15 ISYEB, UMR 7205 (CNRS MNHN UPMC EPHE) 16 Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, CP39 17 Bât.
    [Show full text]
  • Cheating Viruses and Game Theory
    Cheating Viruses and Game Theory The theory of games can explain how viruses evolve when they compete against one another in a test of evolutionary fitness Paul E. Turner he 19th-century circus showman reptitious copulations. This strategy them easy subjects for manipulation TP. T. Barnum is reputed to have is very successful for maintaining a and study. Although the experiments coined the phrase “There’s a sucker subpopulation of sneakers, but it’s un- are conducted in the laboratory, evo- born every minute”—although Bar- likely that the population will evolve lution proceeds by natural selection num denied the saying was his, and to contain only cheaters because ter- because the laboratory habitat dictates it has been variously attributed by ritorial males are most attractive to fe- which genetic variants are favored to biographers. In any event, whoever male mates. contribute their genes to the next gen- did voice this cynical view of human In general, cheaters are highly suc- eration. This is very different from ar- gullibility could not have predicted cessful when they are rare because tificial selection, such as dog breeding, that the terms “cheaters” and “suck- they frequently encounter suckers. The where the experimenter determines ers” would describe individuals in benefits of cheating wane as more indi- the variants that will reproduce. Per- the world of microorganisms as well. viduals in the population opt to cheat. haps most important, microorganisms However, my colleagues and I have In the parlance of evolutionary biology, can be stored in a freezer indefinitely, been studying interactions between vi- the success of cheaters should be gov- creating a “fossil record” that permits ruses, and it seems that strategies for erned by frequency-dependent selection.
    [Show full text]
  • Cheating in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Mutualism: a Network and Phylogenetic Analysis of Mycoheterotrophy
    Research Cheating in arbuscular mycorrhizal mutualism: a network and phylogenetic analysis of mycoheterotrophy 1,2 1,3 € 4 2 Beno^ıt Perez-Lamarque , Marc-Andre Selosse , Maarja Opik ,Helene Morlon and Florent Martos1 1Institut de Systematique, Evolution, Biodiversite (ISYEB), Museum national d’histoire naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Universite, EPHE, Universite des Antilles, CP39, 57 rue Cuvier, 75 005 Paris, France; 2Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Superieure (IBENS), Ecole Normale Superieure, CNRS, INSERM, Universite PSL, 46 rue d’Ulm, 75 005 Paris, France; 3Department of Plant Taxonomy and Nature Conservation, University of Gdansk, Wita Stwosza 59, 80-308 Gdansk, Poland; 4University of Tartu, 40 Lai Street, 51 005 Tartu, Estonia Summary Author for correspondence: Although mutualistic interactions are widespread and essential in ecosystem functioning, ^ Benoıt Perez-Lamarque the emergence of uncooperative cheaters threatens their stability, unless there are some phys- Tel: +33 1 40 79 32 05 iological or ecological mechanisms limiting interactions with cheaters. Email: [email protected] In this framework, we investigated the patterns of specialization and phylogenetic distribu- Received: 2 September 2019 tion of mycoheterotrophic cheaters vs noncheating autotrophic plants and their respective Accepted: 20 January 2020 fungi, in a global arbuscular mycorrhizal network with> 25 000 interactions. We show that mycoheterotrophy evolved repeatedly among vascular plants, suggesting New Phytologist (2020) low phylogenetic constraints for plants. However, mycoheterotrophic plants are significantly doi: 10.1111/nph.16474 more specialized than autotrophic plants, and they tend to be associated with specialized and closely related fungi. These results raise new hypotheses about the mechanisms (e.g. sanc- Key words: arbuscular mycorrhiza, cheating, tions, or habitat filtering) that actually limit the interaction of mycoheterotrophic plants and ecological networks, mutualism, their associated fungi with the rest of the autotrophic plants.
    [Show full text]
  • The Genetic Control of the Social Parasitism in the Cape Honey Bee
    The genetic control of the social parasitism in the Cape honey bee, A. m. capensis ESCH. Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.) der Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät I – Biowissenschaften – der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, vorgelegt von Frau Denise Aumer geb. am 05.07.1987 in Pegnitz Gutachter: 1. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Robin F.A. Moritz (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany) 2. Prof. Dr. Robin M. Crewe (University of Pretoria, South Africa) 3. Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heinze (Universität Regensburg, Germany) Tag der öffentlichen Verteidigung: 13.12.2018 Table of Contents General Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1 Evolution of eusociality .................................................................................................................. 1 2 The Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) ........................................................................................ 2 3 Worker reproduction in A. mellifera ............................................................................................... 4 4 The special case of A. m. capensis Esch. ........................................................................................ 6 5 Social parasitism of A. m. capensis workers ................................................................................. 10 6 Genetic control of thelytoky in A. m. capensis ............................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Facultative Cheating Supports the Coexistence of Diverse Quorum-Sensing Alleles
    Facultative cheating supports the coexistence of diverse quorum-sensing alleles Shaul Pollaka, Shira Omer-Bendoria, Eran Even-Tova, Valeria Lipsmana, Tasneem Bareiaa, Ishay Ben-Ziona, and Avigdor Eldara,1 aDepartment of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel Edited by Joan E. Strassmann, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, and approved December 16, 2015 (received for review October 20, 2015) Bacterial quorum sensing enables bacteria to cooperate in a density- a minority and returns to cooperation when its frequency increases dependent manner via the group-wide secretion and detection of (Fig. 1B). This model can thus explain both the observed diversity specific autoinducer molecules. Many bacterial species show high and the rapid horizontal gene transfer of quorum-sensing alleles. intraspecific diversity of autoinducer–receptor alleles, called phero- The Bacillus subtilis ComQXP quorum-sensing system is one types. The autoinducer produced by one pherotype activates its of the best-studied systems with multiple characterized pherotypes coencoded receptor, but not the receptor of another pherotype. It is (Fig. 1C) (19). This system is encoded by a single locus that con- unclear what selection forces drive the maintenance of pherotype tains a three-gene operon. The ComX autoinducer production diversity. Here, we use the ComQXPA system of Bacillus subtilis as a genes (comQ, comX) and the region of comP encoding for the model system, to show that pherotype diversity can be maintained extracellular part of the ComP receptor are highly variable and by facultative cheating—a minority pherotype exploits the majority, encode for multiple different pherotypes, which coexist in the soil but resumes cooperation when its frequency increases.
    [Show full text]
  • Parasites May Help Stabilize Cooperative Relationships Ainslie EF Little1,2,3 and Cameron R Currie*1,2,3
    BMC Evolutionary Biology BioMed Central Research article Open Access Parasites may help stabilize cooperative relationships Ainslie EF Little1,2,3 and Cameron R Currie*1,2,3 Address: 1Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA, 2Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado Box 2072, Balboa, Ancon, Panama and 3Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA Email: Ainslie EF Little - [email protected]; Cameron R Currie* - [email protected] * Corresponding author Published: 1 June 2009 Received: 17 April 2009 Accepted: 1 June 2009 BMC Evolutionary Biology 2009, 9:124 doi:10.1186/1471-2148-9-124 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/9/124 © 2009 Little and Currie; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: The persistence of cooperative relationships is an evolutionary paradox; selection should favor those individuals that exploit their partners (cheating), resulting in the breakdown of cooperation over evolutionary time. Our current understanding of the evolutionary stability of mutualisms (cooperation between species) is strongly shaped by the view that they are often maintained by partners having mechanisms to avoid or retaliate against exploitation by cheaters. In contrast, we empirically and theoretically examine how additional symbionts, specifically specialized parasites, potentially influence the stability of bipartite mutualistic associations. In our empirical work we focus on the obligate mutualism between fungus-growing ants and the fungi they cultivate for food.
    [Show full text]
  • Moral Action As Cheater Suppression in Human Superorganisms
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Frontiers - Publisher Connector ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 22 March 2017 doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2017.00002 Moral Action as Cheater Suppression in Human Superorganisms Robert Aunger* London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK For it is peculiar to man as compared to the other animals that he alone has a perception of good and bad and just and unjust and other things [of this sort]; and partnership in these things is what makes a household and a city. (Aristotle, The Politics 37) Aristotle. The Politics. Trans. Carnes Lord. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. Developments in human technology and social organization have enabled the kinds of social roles that individuals can undertake to proliferate—creating a degree of interde- pendence not seen in other species. Human societies cannot rely on shared genetic interests or dyadic reciprocity to ensure social cohesion because genetic similarity is low while indirect reciprocity is rife; nevertheless, such societies cohere, due to the evolution of novel regulatory mechanisms that inhibit defaulting on social obligations: moral sentiments and actions. While the degree of social cooperation created by these mechanisms remains less than that of the eusocial insects, it is sufficient to suggest that contemporary human societies constitute crude “superorganisms” to which their mem- Edited by: bers have wide-ranging responsibilities. The present paper argues that the domains and Doug Marshall, extent of moral regulation can be most usefully identified by defining the set of functions University of South Alabama, USA required to sustain a human superorganism.
    [Show full text]