title: Rapid radiation in bacteria leads to a division of labour.
abstract: The division of labour is a central feature of the most sophisticated biological systems, including genomes, multicellular organisms and societies, which took millions of years to evolve. Here we show that a well-organized and robust division of labour can evolve in a matter of days. Mutants emerge within bacterial colonies and work with the parent strain to gain new territory. The two strains self-organize in space: one provides a wetting polymer at the colony edge, whereas the other sits behind and pushes them both along. The emergence of the interaction is repeatable, bidirectional and only requires a single mutation to alter production of the intracellular messenger, cyclic-di-GMP. Our work demonstrates the power of the division of labour to rapidly solve biological problems without the need for long-term evolution or derived sociality. We predict that the division of labour will evolve frequently in microbial populations, where rapid genetic diversification is common.
authors: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.|Oxford Centre for Integrative Systems Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK.|FAS Center for Systems Biology, University of Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors: Wook
authors: W
authors: Kim
authors: Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance, Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02111, USA.
authors: Stuart B
authors: SB
authors: Levy
authors: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.|Oxford Centre for Integrative Systems Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK.|FAS Center for Systems Biology, University of Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors: Kevin R
authors: KR
authors: Foster
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D005075:Biological Evolution; D006152:Cyclic GMP / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000096:biosynthesis; D016368:Frameshift Mutation; D056265:Microbial Interactions / Q000502:physiology*; D011551:Pseudomonas fluorescens / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C062025:bis(3',5')-cyclic diguanylic acid; D006152:Cyclic GMP