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Microbial cooperation
Microbes cooperate in ways that are important for both disease and antimicrobial resistance. Examples include extracellular enzymes that release nutrients, siderophores that scavenge iron, and rhamnolipids that help cells to move (movie below). Microbial cooperation typically occurs among genetically-identical cells, but there are also some examples involving different species. We have helped to identify and explain examples of microbial cooperation and other collective behaviours, which can make good targets for antimicrobials.
Swarming behaviour in the pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a cooperative behaviour. Here the righthand side strain secretes rhamnolipids that allow the lefthand strain to move when the meet. Read more.
Example papers
Choudhary D, Lagage V, Foster KR, Uphoff S, 2023. Phenotypic heterogeneity in the bacterial oxidative stress response is driven by cell-cell interactions. Cell Reports, 42: 112168
Dieltjens L, Appermans K, Lissens M, Lories B, Kim W, Van der Eycken EV, Foster KR, Steenackers HP. 2020 Inhibiting bacterial cooperation is an evolutionarily robust anti-biofilm strategy. Nature Communications. 11, 107. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-13660-x.
Meacock OJ, Doostmohammadi A, Foster KR, Yeomans JM, Durham WM. 2020 Bacteria solve the problem of crowding by moving slowly. Nature Physics, 17: 205-210. Science Highlight. Video explaining results.
Rakoff-Nahoum S, Foster KR, Comstock L. 2016. The evolution of cooperation within the gut microbiota. Nature, 533: 255–259.
Oliveira NM, Niehus R, Foster KR. 2014 The evolutionary limits to cooperation in microbial communities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111: 17941-17946.
Koschwanez J, Foster KR, Murray AJ. 2011. Sucrose utilization in budding yeast as a model for the origin of undifferentiated multicellularity. Plos Biology, 9(8): e1001122. Supplementary material;
Xavier J, Kim W, Foster KR 2011 A molecular mechanism that stabilizes cooperative secretions in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Molecular Microbiology 79, 166-179