Schaal Kaitlin A, Manhes Pauline, Velicer Gregory J
Institute for Integrative Biology/Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7BE, United Kingdom.
ISME J. 2025 Jan 2;19(1). doi: 10.1093/ismejo/wrae255.
Exploitation is a common feature of social interactions, which can be modified by ecological context. Here, we investigate effects of ecological history on exploitation phenotypes in bacteria. In experiments with the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus, prior resource levels of different genotypes interacting during cooperative multicellular development were found to regulate social fitness, including whether cheating occurs. Responses of developmental spore production to manipulation of resource-level histories differed between interacting cooperators and cheaters, and relative-fitness advantages gained by cheating after high-resource growth were generally reduced or absent if one or both parties experienced low-resource growth. Low-resource growth also eliminated exploitation in some pairwise mixes of cooperative natural isolates that occurs when both strains have grown under resource abundance. Our results contrast with previous experiments in which cooperator fitness correlated positively with concurrent resource level and suggest that resource-level variation may be important in regulating whether exploitation of cooperators occurs in a natural context.
剥削是社会互动的一个常见特征，它会受到生态环境的影响。在此，我们研究生态历史对细菌剥削表型的影响。在用黄色粘球菌进行的实验中，发现在合作性多细胞发育过程中相互作用的不同基因型的先前资源水平会调节社会适应性，包括欺骗行为是否发生。发育性孢子产生对资源水平历史操纵的反应在相互作用的合作者和欺骗者之间有所不同，并且如果一方或双方经历了低资源生长，那么在高资源生长后通过欺骗获得的相对适应性优势通常会降低或不存在。低资源生长还消除了一些合作性自然分离株在资源丰富条件下生长时两者混合时出现的剥削现象。我们的结果与之前的实验形成对比，在之前的实验中合作者适应性与同时期资源水平呈正相关，这表明资源水平变化在调节自然环境中是否会发生对合作者的剥削方面可能很重要。
