ArticleThe ISME journal2020
Cheaters shape the evolution of phenotypic heterogeneity in Bacillus subtilis biofilms.
Article in The ISME journal, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- Self-generated hydrogel ejects bacterial cells for localized biofilm dispersion.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- An agent-based model of metabolic signaling oscillations in Bacillus subtilis biofilms.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Thermal and shear stress-induced phenotypic changes in Bacillus paralicheniformis TB197 in submerged liquid cultures.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2025Article
- Facing Foodborne Pathogen Biofilms with Green Antimicrobial Agents: One Health Approach.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Competition and interdependence define interactions of Nostoc sp. and Agrobacterium sp. under inorganic carbon limitation.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- The extracytoplasmic sigma factor σScientific reports · 2025Article
- Presence of a biofilm beneficiary alters the evolutionary trajectory of a biofilm former.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Taxonomy ofmSystems · 2024Article
- Experimental evolution of yeast shows that public-goods upregulation can evolve despite challenges from exploitative non-producers.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Active interface bulging inProceedings 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
- Role of Bacillus subtilis exopolymeric genes in modulating rhizosphere microbiome assembly.Environmental microbiome · 2024Article
- Signatures of kin selection in a natural population of the bacteriaEvolution letters · 2023Article
- A toxin-mediated policing system ineLife · 2023Article
- Formation and emergent dynamics of spatially organized microbial systems.Interface focus · 2023Review
- Complex extracellular biology drives surface competition during colony expansion in Bacillus subtilis.The ISME journal · 2022Article
- Experimental evolution ofiScience · 2022Article
- Multiscale X-ray study ofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Bacillus subtilis biofilm formation and social interactions.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2021Review
- Cryptic surface-associated multicellularity emerges through cell adhesion and its regulation.PLoS biology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Biofilms are closely packed cells held and shielded by extracellular matrix composed of structural proteins and exopolysaccharides (EPS). As matrix components are costly to produce and shared within the population, EPS-deficient cells can act as cheaters by gaining benefits from the cooperative nature of EPS producers. Remarkably, genetically programmed EPS producers can also exhibit phenotypic heterogeneity at single-cell level. Previous studies have shown that spatial structure of biofilms limits the spread of cheaters, but the long-term influence of cheating on biofilm evolution is not well understood. Here, we examine the influence of EPS nonproducers on evolution of matrix production within the populations of EPS producers in a model biofilm-forming bacterium, Bacillus subtilis. We discovered that general adaptation to biofilm lifestyle leads to an increase in phenotypical heterogeneity of eps expression. However, prolonged exposure to EPS-deficient cheaters may result in different adaptive strategy, where eps expression increases uniformly within the population. We propose a molecular mechanism behind such adaptive strategy and demonstrate how it can benefit the EPS producers in the presence of cheaters. This study provides additional insights on how biofilms adapt and respond to stress caused by exploitation in long-term scenario.
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Registered trials
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.