ArticleNature microbiology2018
Collapse of genetic division of labour and evolution of autonomy in pellicle biofilms.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 34 papers.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cyclic-di-GMP signalling mutants drive ecological succession and self-generated diversity in experimentally evolved biofilms ofMicrobiology (Reading, England) · 2025Article
- Strengthen or Weaken: Evolutionary Directions of Cross-Feeding After Formation.Environmental microbiology reports · 2025Review
- Presence of a biofilm beneficiary alters the evolutionary trajectory of a biofilm former.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Taxonomy ofmSystems · 2024Article
- The evolution of autonomy from two cooperative specialists in fluctuating environments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Enhanced surface colonisation and competition during bacterial adaptation to a fungus.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Mechanics limits ecological diversity and promotes heterogeneity in confined bacterial communities.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Article
- Lateral interactions govern self-assembly of the bacterial biofilm matrix protein BslA.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Pleiotropic hubs drive bacterial surface competition through parallel changes in colony composition and expansion.PLoS biology · 2023Article
- A toxin-mediated policing system ineLife · 2023Article
- Article
- Donor-strand exchange drives assembly of the TasA scaffold in Bacillus subtilis biofilms.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Resistance evolution can disrupt antibiotic exposure protection through competitive exclusion of the protective species.The ISME journal · 2022Article
- Complex extracellular biology drives surface competition during colony expansion in Bacillus subtilis.The ISME journal · 2022Article
- Social evolution of shared biofilm matrix components.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Experimental evolution ofiScience · 2022Article
- Enforced specialization fosters mutual cheating and not division of labour in the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2022Article
- Adaptation and phenotypic diversification of Bacillus thuringiensis biofilm are accompanied by fuzzy spreader morphotypes.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2022Article
- The evolution of mechanisms to produce phenotypic heterogeneity in microorganisms.Nature communications · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Closely related microorganisms often cooperate, but the prevalence and stability of cooperation between different genotypes remain debatable. Here, we track the evolution of pellicle biofilms formed through genetic division of labour and ask whether partially deficient partners can evolve autonomy. Pellicles of Bacillus subtilis rely on an extracellular matrix composed of exopolysaccharide (EPS) and the fibre protein TasA. In monocultures, ∆eps and ∆tasA mutants fail to form pellicles, but, facilitated by cooperation, they succeed in co-culture. Interestingly, cooperation collapses on an evolutionary timescale and ∆tasA gradually outcompetes its partner ∆eps. Pellicle formation can evolve independently from division of labour in ∆eps and ∆tasA monocultures, by selection acting on the residual matrix component, TasA or EPS, respectively. Using a set of interdisciplinary tools, we unravel that the TasA producer (∆eps) evolves via an unconventional but reproducible substitution in TasA that modulates the biochemical properties of the protein. Conversely, the EPS producer (ΔtasA) undergoes genetically variable adaptations, all leading to enhanced EPS secretion and biofilms with different biomechanical properties. Finally, we revisit the collapse of division of labour between Δeps and ΔtasA in light of a strong frequency versus exploitability trade-off that manifested in the solitarily evolving partners. We propose that such trade-off differences may represent an additional barrier to evolution of division of labour between genetically distinct microorganisms.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.