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An experimental study of strong reciprocity in bacteria

Strong reciprocity, whereby cooperators punish non-cooperators, may help to explain the evolutionary success of cooperative behaviours. However, theory suggests that selection for strong reciprocity can depend upon tight genetic linkage between cooperation and punishment, to avoid the strategy being...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Inglis, R. Fredrik, West, Stuart, Buckling, Angus
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3949375/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24501270
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.1069
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author Inglis, R. Fredrik
West, Stuart
Buckling, Angus
author_facet Inglis, R. Fredrik
West, Stuart
Buckling, Angus
author_sort Inglis, R. Fredrik
collection PubMed
description Strong reciprocity, whereby cooperators punish non-cooperators, may help to explain the evolutionary success of cooperative behaviours. However, theory suggests that selection for strong reciprocity can depend upon tight genetic linkage between cooperation and punishment, to avoid the strategy being outcompeted by non-punishing cooperators. We tested this hypothesis using experimental populations of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which cooperate by producing iron-scavenging siderophores and, in this context, punish non-cooperators with toxins. Consistent with theory, we show that cooperative punishers can indeed invade cheats, but only when the traits are tightly linked. These results emphasize that punishment is only likely to be favoured when the punishment itself leads to a direct or indirect fitness benefit to the actor.
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spelling pubmed-39493752014-03-13 An experimental study of strong reciprocity in bacteria Inglis, R. Fredrik West, Stuart Buckling, Angus Biol Lett Evolutionary Biology Strong reciprocity, whereby cooperators punish non-cooperators, may help to explain the evolutionary success of cooperative behaviours. However, theory suggests that selection for strong reciprocity can depend upon tight genetic linkage between cooperation and punishment, to avoid the strategy being outcompeted by non-punishing cooperators. We tested this hypothesis using experimental populations of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which cooperate by producing iron-scavenging siderophores and, in this context, punish non-cooperators with toxins. Consistent with theory, we show that cooperative punishers can indeed invade cheats, but only when the traits are tightly linked. These results emphasize that punishment is only likely to be favoured when the punishment itself leads to a direct or indirect fitness benefit to the actor. The Royal Society 2014-02 /pmc/articles/PMC3949375/ /pubmed/24501270 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.1069 Text en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ © 2014 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Evolutionary Biology
Inglis, R. Fredrik
West, Stuart
Buckling, Angus
An experimental study of strong reciprocity in bacteria
title An experimental study of strong reciprocity in bacteria
title_full An experimental study of strong reciprocity in bacteria
title_fullStr An experimental study of strong reciprocity in bacteria
title_full_unstemmed An experimental study of strong reciprocity in bacteria
title_short An experimental study of strong reciprocity in bacteria
title_sort experimental study of strong reciprocity in bacteria
topic Evolutionary Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3949375/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24501270
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.1069
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