ArticleeLife2021
The evolution of strategy in bacterial warfare via the regulation of bacteriocins and antibiotics.
Article in eLife, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed.
- From predicted bacteriocins to ecological function.Current research in microbial sciences · 2026Review
- Implications of proteome allocation constraints for understanding interbacterial antagonism.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2026Review
- ABPs: diffusible antibacterial toxins secreted by and active against diverse gram-positive bacteria.Infection and immunity · 2026Review
- Antagonism by the type VI secretion system ofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Coevolutionary dynamics of cooperation, risk, and cost in collective risk games.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Inhibition ofMicroorganisms · 2025Article
- Evidence of ESBL plasmid transfer and selective persistence of multiple host-associatedApplied and environmental microbiology · 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
- Metabolic ecology of microbiomes: Nutrient competition, host benefits, and community engineering.Cell host & microbe · 2025Review
- Interactions with native microbial keystone taxa enhance the biocontrol efficiency of Streptomyces.Microbiome · 2025Article
- Article
- Dynamic coexistence driven by physiological transitions in microbial communities.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Wine Fermentation as a Model System for Microbial Ecology and Evolution.Environmental microbiology · 2025Review
- Empirical evidence of resource dependent evolution of payoff matrices in Saccharomyces cerevisiae populations.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2025Article
- The dominant lineage of an emerging pathogen harbours contact-dependent inhibition systems.Microbial genomics · 2025Article
- Novel class IIb microcins show activity against Gram-negative ESKAPE and plant pathogens.eLife · 2024Article
- Predicting the first steps of evolution in randomly assembled communities.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Article
- RNA-Seq reveals that Pseudomonas aeruginosa mounts growth medium-dependent competitive responses when sensing diffusible cues from Burkholderia cenocepacia.Communications biology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Bacteria inhibit and kill one another with a diverse array of compounds, including bacteriocins and antibiotics. These attacks are highly regulated, but we lack a clear understanding of the evolutionary logic underlying this regulation. Here, we combine a detailed dynamic model of bacterial competition with evolutionary game theory to study the rules of bacterial warfare. We model a large range of possible combat strategies based upon the molecular biology of bacterial regulatory networks. Our model predicts that regulated strategies, which use quorum sensing or stress responses to regulate toxin production, will readily evolve as they outcompete constitutive toxin production. Amongst regulated strategies, we show that a particularly successful strategy is to upregulate toxin production in response to an incoming competitor's toxin, which can be achieved via stress responses that detect cell damage (competition sensing). Mirroring classical game theory, our work suggests a fundamental advantage to reciprocation. However, in contrast to classical results, we argue that reciprocation in bacteria serves not to promote peaceful outcomes but to enable efficient and effective attacks.
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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.