Open AccessJournal Article
Physical solutions to the public goods dilemma in bacterial biofilms
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In this paper, the authors show that the public goods dilemma may be solved by two very different mechanisms: cells can produce thick biofilms that confine the goods to producers, or fluid flow can remove soluble products of chitin digestion, denying access to nonproducers.Abstract:
Bacteria frequently live in densely populated surface-bound communities, termed biofilms [1-4]. Biofilm-dwelling cells rely on secretion of extracellular substances to construct their communities and to capture nutrients from the environment [5]. Some secreted factors behave as cooperative public goods: they can be exploited by nonproducing cells [6-11]. The means by which public-good-producing bacteria avert exploitation in biofilm environments are largely unknown. Using experiments with Vibrio cholerae, which secretes extracellular enzymes to digest its primary food source, the solid polymer chitin, we show that the public goods dilemma may be solved by two very different mechanisms: cells can produce thick biofilms that confine the goods to producers, or fluid flow can remove soluble products of chitin digestion, denying access to nonproducers. Both processes are unified by limiting the distance over which enzyme-secreting cells provide benefits to neighbors, resulting in preferential benefit to nearby clonemates and allowing kin selection to favor public good production. Our results demonstrate new mechanisms by which the physical conditions of natural habitats can interact with bacterial physiology to promote the evolution of cooperation.read more
Citations
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Quorum sensing signal–response systems in Gram-negative bacteria
Kai Papenfort,Bonnie L. Bassler +1 more
TL;DR: This Review examines how features of quorum sensing signal–response systems combine to control collective behaviours in Gram-negative bacteria and the implications for host–microbial associations and antibacterial therapy.
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Spatial structure, cooperation and competition in biofilms
TL;DR: How the spatial arrangement of genotypes within a community influences the cooperative and competitive cell–cell interactions that define biofilm form and function is discussed.
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Microbial Surface Colonization and Biofilm Development in Marine Environments
Hongyue Dang,Charles R. Lovell +1 more
TL;DR: Recent progress in the study of marine microbial surface colonization and biofilm development is synthesized and discussed and questions are posed for targeted investigation of surface-specific community-level microbial features to advance understanding ofsurface-associated microbial community ecology and the biogeochemical functions of these communities.
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Bacterial quorum sensing in complex and dynamically changing environments.
TL;DR: This Review focuses on how quorums are detected and how quorum sensing controls group behaviours in complex and dynamically changing environments such as multi-species bacterial communities, in the presence of flow, in 3D non-uniform biofilms and in hosts during infection.
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The evolution of cooperation within the gut microbiota
TL;DR: It is found that extracellular digestion of inulin increases the fitness of B. ovatus owing to reciprocal benefits when it feeds other gut species such as Bacteroides vulgatus, a rare example of naturally-evolved cooperation between microbial species.
References
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