title: The role of 'soaking' in spiteful toxin production in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
abstract: The ubiquitous production of antibacterial toxins, such as bacteriocins, is an ecologically significant class of interbacterial interactions that have primarily evolved through their indirect fitness benefits to the producer. Bacteria release bacteriocins into the environment at a cost to individual cell, but individual bacteriocin-producing cells are unlikely to gain any direct benefit from their own toxin; indeed, cell lysis is required in many species. There is a growing body of research describing the ecological conditions that can favour the evolution of bacteriocin production. However, an important aspect of many bacteriocins has yet to be investigated: the ability of bacteriocin-producing cells to neutralize toxin ('soaking') produced by other clonemates. By competing Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteriocin-producing wild-type and 'non-soaking' strains against a bacteriocin-susceptible strain, we find that soaking markedly reduces the fitness of a bacteriocin-producing strain at both high and low frequencies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland. fredrik.inglis@env.ethz.ch
authors.forename: R Fredrik
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Inglis
authors.forename: Alex R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: Angus
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buckling
mesh_terms: D001430:Bacteriocins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D056265:Microbial Interactions; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D011709:Pyocins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000378:metabolism; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D001430:Bacteriocins; D009842:Oligopeptides; D011709:Pyocins; C042453:pyoverdin