Plastic responses to competition: Does bacteriocin production increase in the presence of nonself competitors?

ABSTRACT: Anticompetitor traits such as the production of allelopathic toxins can confer significant competitive benefits but are often costly to produce. Evolution of these traits may be facilitated by environment-specific induction; however, the extent to which costly anticompetitor traits are induced by competitors is not well explored. Here, we addressed this question using bacteriocins, which are highly specific, proteinaceous anticompetitor toxins, produced by most lineages of bacteria and archaea. We tested the prediction that bacteriocin production is phenotypically plastic and induced by the presence of competitors by examining bacteriocin production in the presence and absence of nonself competitors over the course of growth of a producing strain. Our results show that bacteriocin producti

SUBMITTER: Bhattacharya A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6065276 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature