ArticleFrontiers in microbiology2015
Why do bacteria regulate public goods by quorum sensing?-How the shapes of cost and benefit functions determine the form of optimal regulation.
Article in Frontiers in microbiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed.
- Characterization of a quorum-sensing communication based on gamma-butyrolactones inFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Microbial diversity and fitness in the gut-brain axis: influences on developmental risk for Alzheimer's disease.Gut microbes · 2025Review
- Urease promotes pH homeostasis and growth ofJournal of bacteriology · 2025Article
- Population-level bistability inmBio · 2025Article
- Recent developments in preventing catheter-related infections based on biofilms: A comprehensive review.Biomicrofluidics · 2024Review
- Relocating Glyceryl Trinitrate as an Anti-Virulence Agent againstMicroorganisms · 2023Article
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- Biofilms as protective cocoons against biocides: from bacterial adaptation to One Health issues.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2023Review
- Large-Scale Identification of Known and Novel RRNPP Quorum-Sensing Systems by RRNPP_Detector Captures Novel Features of Bacterial, Plasmidic, and Viral Coevolution.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Cheater suppression and stochastic clearance through quorum sensing.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Article
- Intertemporal trade-off between population growth rate and carrying capacity during public good production.iScience · 2022Article
- Article
- Quorum sensing in human gut and food microbiomes: Significance and potential for therapeutic targeting.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
- Quorum Sensing Inhibitors to QuenchPharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- The evolution of strategy in bacterial warfare via the regulation of bacteriocins and antibiotics.eLife · 2021Article
- Biocontrol of Biofilm Formation: Jamming of Sessile-Associated Rhizobial Communication by Rhodococcal Quorum-Quenching.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
- Aggregative cycles evolve as a solution to conflicts in social investment.PLoS computational biology · 2021Article
- Secondary metabolites from the Burkholderia pseudomallei complex: structure, ecology, and evolution.Journal of industrial microbiology & biotechnology · 2020Review
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3 authors.
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Abstract
Many bacteria secrete compounds which act as public goods. Such compounds are often under quorum sensing (QS) regulation, yet it is not understood exactly when bacteria may gain from having a public good under QS regulation. Here, we show that the optimal public good production rate per cell as a function of population size (the optimal production curve, OPC) depends crucially on the cost and benefit functions of the public good and that the OPC will fall into one of two categories: Either it is continuous or it jumps from zero discontinuously at a critical population size. If, e.g., the public good has accelerating returns and linear cost, then the OPC is discontinuous and the best strategy thus to ramp up production sharply at a precise population size. By using the example of public goods with accelerating and diminishing returns (and linear cost) we are able to determine how the two different categories of OPSs can best be matched by production regulated through a QS signal feeding back on its own production. We find that the optimal QS parameters are different for the two categories and specifically that public goods which provide accelerating returns, call for stronger positive signal feedback.
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