ArticleNature communications2017
Killing by Type VI secretion drives genetic phase separation and correlates with increased cooperation.
Article in Nature communications, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 83 papers.
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Who cites it
83 citing papers in PubMed.
- Repression of the Type VI Secretion System (T6SS) During Biofilm Formation Provides a Fitness Advantage forMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- Interspecies quorum sensing signals modulate multicellular organization and enhance contact-dependent antagonism in Vibrio cholerae.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Occurrence of type VI secretion system effector genes in longitudinal isolates ofMicrobial genomics · 2025Article
- Phase separation and coexistence in spatial coordination games between microbes.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Type VI secretion system activity at lethal antibiotic concentrations leads to overestimation of weapon potency.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2025Article
- Overcoming toxicity: How nonantagonistic microbes manage to thrive in boom-and-bust environments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Disentangling the feedback loops driving spatial patterning in microbial communities.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Review
- Multiplicity of type 6 secretion system toxins limits the evolution of resistance.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- The dominant lineage of an emerging pathogen harbours contact-dependent inhibition systems.Microbial genomics · 2025Article
- Polymicrobial interactions betweenbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Use of zebrafish to identify host responses specific to type VI secretion system mediated interbacterial antagonism.PLoS pathogens · 2024Article
- Ecological drift during colonization drives within-host and between-host heterogeneity in an animal-associated symbiont.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Constitutive expression of the Type VI Secretion System carries no measurable fitness cost inEcology and evolution · 2024Article
- Cell motility empowers bacterial contact weapons.The ISME journal · 2024Article
- Trojan horselike T6SS effector TepC mediates both interference competition and exploitative competition.The ISME journal · 2024Article
- Spatial constraints and stochastic seeding subvert microbial arms race.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Article
- Community composition and the environment modulate the population dynamics of type VI secretion in human gut bacteria.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Article
- SOCfinder: a genomic tool for identifying social genes in bacteria.Microbial genomics · 2023Article
- The evolution of short- and long-range weapons for bacterial competition.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Article
23 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
By nature of their small size, dense growth and frequent need for extracellular metabolism, microbes face persistent public goods dilemmas. Genetic assortment is the only general solution stabilizing cooperation, but all known mechanisms structuring microbial populations depend on the availability of free space, an often unrealistic constraint. Here we describe a class of self-organization that operates within densely packed bacterial populations. Through mathematical modelling and experiments with Vibrio cholerae, we show how killing adjacent competitors via the Type VI secretion system (T6SS) precipitates phase separation via the 'Model A' universality class of order-disorder transition mediated by killing. We mathematically demonstrate that T6SS-mediated killing should favour the evolution of public goods cooperation, and empirically support this prediction using a phylogenetic comparative analysis. This work illustrates the twin role played by the T6SS, dealing death to local competitors while simultaneously creating conditions potentially favouring the evolution of cooperation with kin.
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Registered trials
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