Sharing the sandbox: Evolutionary mechanisms that maintain bacterial cooperation

Christopher Waters, Eric Bruger

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

Microbes are now known to participate in an extensive repertoire of cooperative behaviors such as biofilm formation, production of extracellular public-goods, group motility, and higher-ordered multicellular structures. A fundamental question is how these cooperative tasks are maintained in the face of non-cooperating defector cells. Recently, a number of molecular mechanisms including facultative participation, spatial sorting, and policing have been discovered to stabilize cooperation. Often these different mechanisms work in concert to reinforce cooperation. In this review, we describe bacterial cooperation and the current understanding of the molecular mechanisms that maintain it.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number1504
JournalF1000Research
Volume4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2015
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Bruger E and Waters C.

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