Nutrient limitation determines the fitness of cheaters in bacterial siderophore cooperation

D. Joseph Sexton and Martin Schuster ()
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D. Joseph Sexton: Oregon State University
Martin Schuster: Oregon State University

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Cooperative behaviors provide a collective benefit, but are considered costly for the individual. Here, we report that these costs vary dramatically in different contexts and have opposing effects on the selection for non-cooperating cheaters. We investigate a prominent example of bacterial cooperation, the secretion of the peptide siderophore pyoverdine by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, under different nutrient-limiting conditions. Using metabolic modeling, we show that pyoverdine incurs a fitness cost only when its building blocks carbon or nitrogen are growth-limiting and are diverted from cellular biomass production. We confirm this result experimentally with a continuous-culture approach. We show that pyoverdine non-producers (cheaters) enjoy a large fitness advantage in co-culture with producers (cooperators) and spread to high frequency when limited by carbon, but not when limited by phosphorus. The principle of nutrient-dependent fitness costs has implications for the stability of cooperation in pathogenic and non-pathogenic environments, in biotechnological applications, and beyond the microbial realm.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00222-2

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