Instruct: Identify the main category of Biorxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: Cheater suppression and spite through quorum sensing The evolutionary consequences of quorum sensing in regulating bacterial cooperation are not fully understood. In this study, we reveal unexpected consequences of regulating public good production through quorum sensing on bacterial population dynamics, showing that quorum sensing can be a collectively harmful alternative to unregulated production. We analyze a birth-death model of bacterial population dynamics accounting for public good production and the presence of non-producing cheaters. Our model demonstrates that when demographic noise is a factor, the consequences of controlling public good production according to quorum sensing depend on the cost of public good production and the presence of non-public fitness benefits. When public good production is inexpensive, quorum sensing is a destructive alternative to unconditional production, in terms of the mean population extinction time. When costs are higher, quorum sensing becomes a constructive strategy for the producing strain, both stabilizing cooperation and decreasing the risk of population extinction.
3
The categories of this paper are: evolutionary
2
The categories of this paper are: biology
32
The categories of this paper are: zoology
17
The categories of this paper are: molecular
19
The categories of this paper are: epidemiology
15
The categories of this paper are: developmental
7
The categories of this paper are: ecology
20
The categories of this paper are: pharmacology
12
The categories of this paper are: behavior
25
The categories of this paper are: bioengineering
11
The categories of this paper are: cognition
1
The categories of this paper are: bioinformatics
30
The categories of this paper are: scientific
18
The categories of this paper are: systems
0
The categories of this paper are: genetics
13
The categories of this paper are: animal