Maximizing Growth Yield and Dispersal via Quorum Sensing Promotes Cooperation in Vibrio Bacteria.

In this study, we demonstrate in multiple conditions that QS-mediated cooperation can increase in populations of Vibrios when cells experience narrow population bottlenecks or disperse from defectors. This occurred for both conditional cooperation mediated by QS and unconditional cooperation, although conditional cooperators were better able to stabilize cooperation over a much wider range of conditions. Thus, we observed that population structuring allowed for assortment of competing genotypes and promoted cooperation via kin selection in microbes in a QS-dependent manner. PMID: 29728393 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Appl Environ Microbiol Source Type: research