Dynamics of Interbacterial Cooperation and Cheating

Abstract

"Bacterial communities face multiple environmental constraints in their environments. One of the most prevalent ways that bacteria overcome these constraints is the production of public goods. By definition, public goods are compounds that generate benefit for the entire population, producer and other individuals alike. Non-producers of public goods can avoid the cost of production of the public goods but can still benefit from them. When mixed with producers, the energy that non-producers save from not producing the public goods allows them to grow at higher rates than the producers. This can cause the non-producer of the public goods to behave as cheaters, increase in frequency in the overall population and eventually diminish the cooperation and thus the production of the public goods. The lack of public goods production can lead to the drastic reduction of the carrying capacity of the overall population. This phenomenon is defined as the tragedy of the commons in evolutionary biology.(...)"