title: An evolutionary mechanism for diversity in siderophore-producing bacteria.
abstract: Bacteria produce a great diversity of siderophores to scavenge for iron in their environment. We suggest that this diversity results from the interplay between siderophore producers (cooperators) and non-producers (cheaters): when there are many cheaters exploiting a siderophore type it is beneficial for a mutant to produce a siderophore unusable by the dominant population. We formulated and analysed a mathematical model for tagged public goods to investigate the potential for the emergence of diversity. We found that, although they are rare most of the time, cheaters play a key role in maintaining diversity by regulating the different populations of cooperators. This threshold-triggered feedback prevents any stain of cooperators from dominating the others. Our study provides a novel general mechanism for the evolution of diversity that may apply to many forms of social behaviour.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK. william.lee.2008@live.rhul.ac.uk
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Minus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Baalen
authors.forename: Vincent A A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Jansen
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017262:Siderophores / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D017262:Siderophores; D007501:Iron