Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405-3700, USA.
Evolution. 2010 Nov;64(11):3198-204. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2010.01070.x.
Spite occurs when an individual harms itself in the act of harming other individuals. Such behaviors were once assumed to be of limited evolutionary importance, as the conditions for the evolution of spite were thought to be too restrictive. Recent theoretical work, however, suggests that spatial population structure, which allows local competition among genotypes, could favor the evolution of spite. One of the clearest examples of spite is the costly production and release by bacteria of toxins (called bacteriocins) that can kill unrelated strains of the same species. Here, we establish the existence of spatial structure in two natural populations of bacteriocin-producing bacteria. Specifically, relatedness decreased with increasing spatial distance between the field isolates. In addition, toxin-mediated inhibitions were found only between isolates that were collected more than 1 m apart and that were generally less than 80% similar in their genomic fingerprints. Taken together, the results suggest that the bacteria are spatially structured, with mixing of genotypes and spiteful interactions at the boundaries between demes.
当个体在伤害他人的行为中伤害自己时，就会出现恶意行为。这种行为曾经被认为在进化上的重要性有限，因为产生恶意的条件被认为过于限制。然而，最近的理论工作表明，允许基因型在局部竞争的空间种群结构可能有利于恶意的进化。恶意行为最明显的例子之一是细菌产生毒素（称为细菌素）的代价高昂的生产和释放，这些毒素可以杀死同一物种的无关菌株。在这里，我们在两个产生细菌素的细菌自然种群中建立了空间结构的存在。具体来说，亲缘关系随着田间分离株之间的空间距离的增加而降低。此外，只在相隔超过 1 米且基因组指纹相似度一般小于 80%的分离株之间发现了毒素介导的抑制作用。总之，这些结果表明细菌具有空间结构，在种群之间的边界处存在基因型混合和恶意相互作用。
