Genetic signatures of microbial altruism and cheating in social amoebas in the wild.

ABSTRACT: Many microbes engage in social interactions. Some of these have come to play an important role in the study of cooperation and conflict, largely because, unlike most animals, they can be genetically manipulated and experimentally evolved. However, whereas animal social behavior can be observed and assessed in natural environments, microbes usually cannot, so we know little about microbial social adaptations in nature. This has led to some difficult-to-resolve controversies about social adaptation even for well-studied traits such as bacterial quorum sensing, siderophore production, and biofilms. Here we use molecular signatures of population genetics and molecular evolution to address controversies over the existence of altruism and cheating in social amoebas. First, we find signatures of

SUBMITTER: Noh S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5866591 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature