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New article of Szabolcs Számadó and co-authors has been published in BMC Biology

25 April

The article „Cue-driven microbial cooperation and communication: evolving quorum sensing with honest signaling" has been published in BMC Biology.

The article „Cue-driven microbial cooperation and communication: evolving quorum sensing with honest signaling" has been published in BMC Biology.

Available online here:

Czárán, T., Scheuring, I., Zachar, I. et al. Cue-driven microbial cooperation and communication: evolving quorum sensing with honest signaling. BMC Biology 22, 73 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-024-01857-6

 

Abstract:

Quorum sensing (QS) is the ability of microorganisms to assess local clonal density by measuring the extracellular concentration of signal molecules that they produce and excrete. QS is also the only known way of bacterial communication that supports the coordination of within-clone cooperative actions requiring a certain threshold density of cooperating cells. Cooperation aided by QS communication is sensitive to cheating in two different ways: laggards may benefit from not investing in cooperation but enjoying the benefit provided by their cooperating neighbors, whereas Liars explicitly promise cooperation but fail to do so, thereby convincing potential cooperating neighbors to help them, for almost free. Given this double vulnerability to cheats, it is not trivial why QS-supported cooperation is so widespread among prokaryotes.


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