Crystal toxins and the volunteer's dilemma in bacteria

Patel, Matishalin; Raymond, Ben; Bonsall, Michael B.; West, Stuart A.

Abstract

The growth and virulence of the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis depend on the production of Cry toxins, which are used to perforate the gut of its host. Successful invasion of the host relies on producing a threshold amount of toxin, after which there is no benefit from producing more toxin. Consequently, the production of Cry toxin appears to be a different type of social problem compared with the public goods scenarios that bacteria usually encounter. We show that selection for toxin production is a volunteer's dilemma. We make specific predictions that (a) selection for toxin production depends upon an interplay between the number of bacterial cells that each host ingests and the genetic relatedness between those cells; (b) cheats that do not produce toxin gain an advantage when at low frequencies, and at high bacterial density, allowing them to be maintained in a population alongside toxin-producing cells. More generally, our results emphasize the diversity of the social games that bacteria play.

Citation

Patel, M., Raymond, B., Bonsall, M. B., & West, S. A. (2019). Crystal toxins and the volunteer's dilemma in bacteria. Journal of evolutionary biology, 32(4), 310-319. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.13415

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 15, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jan 23, 2019
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Oct 28, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 5, 2024
• Journal: Journal of Evolutionary Biology
• Print ISSN: 1010-061X
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 310-319
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.13415
• Keywords: Cooperation; Evolution; Game theory; Kin selection; Social evolution; Virulence
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4861810
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jeb.13415