Bacterial quorum sensing and metabolic incentives to cooperate.
The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses a cell-cell communication system termed "quorum sensing" to control production of public goods, extracellular products that can be used by any community member. Not all individuals respond to quorum-sensing signals and synthesize public goods. Such social cheaters enjoy the benefits of the products secreted by cooperators. There are some P. aeruginosa cellular enzymes controlled by quorum sensing, and we show that quorum sensing-controlled expression of such private goods can put a metabolic constraint on social cheating and prevent a tragedy of the commons. Metabolic constraint of social cheating provides an explanation for private-goods regulation by a cooperative system and has general implications for population biology, infection control, and stabilization of quorum-sensing circuits in synthetic biology.
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Ajai A
AA
Dandekar
Sudha
S
Chugani
E Peter
EP
Greenberg
D054742:Acyl-Butyrolactones / Q000378:metabolism; D000241:Adenosine / Q000378:metabolism*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002364:Caseins / Q000378:metabolism; D003470:Culture Media / Q000378:metabolism; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D009154:Mutation; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D053038:Quorum Sensing / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D012919:Social Behavior; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
D054742:Acyl-Butyrolactones; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D002364:Caseins; D003470:Culture Media; C080365:LasR protein, Pseudomonas aeruginosa; D015534:Trans-Activators; D000241:Adenosine