Kin selection, quorum sensing and virulence in pathogenic bacteria

Bacterial growth and virulence often depends upon the cooperative release of extracellular factors excreted in response to quorum sensing (QS). We carried out an in vivo selection experiment in mice to examine how QS evolves in response to variation in relatedness (strain diversity), and the consequ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2012-09, Vol.279 (1742), p.3584-3588
Main Authors: Rumbaugh, Kendra P., Trivedi, Urvish, Watters, Chase, Burton-Chellew, Maxwell N., Diggle, Stephen P., West, Stuart A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Bacteria
Bacterial Proteins - genetics
Cheat
Communication
Evolution
Evolutionary genetics
Female
Genomes
Inclusive Fitness
Infections
Kin selection
Liver - microbiology
Mice
Phenotypic traits
Population genetics
Pseudomonas aeruginosa - genetics
Pseudomonas aeruginosa - pathogenicity
Pseudomonas aeruginosa - physiology
Pseudomonas Infections - microbiology
Quorum Sensing
Selection, Genetic
Signalling
Skin - microbiology
Trans-Activators - genetics
Virulence
Wounds and Injuries - microbiology
Wounds and Injuries - pathology
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Summary:Bacterial growth and virulence often depends upon the cooperative release of extracellular factors excreted in response to quorum sensing (QS). We carried out an in vivo selection experiment in mice to examine how QS evolves in response to variation in relatedness (strain diversity), and the consequences for virulence. We started our experiment with two bacterial strains: a wild-type that both produces and responds to QS signal molecules, and a lasR (signal-blind) mutant that does not release extracellular factors in response to signal. We found that: (i) QS leads to greater growth within hosts; (ii) high relatedness favours the QS wild-type; and (iii) low relatedness favours the lasR mutant. Relatedness matters in our experiment because, at relatively low relatedness, the lasR mutant is able to exploit the extracellular factors produced by the cells that respond to QS, and hence increase in frequency. Furthermore, our results suggest that because a higher relatedness favours cooperative QS, and hence leads to higher growth, this will also lead to a higher virulence, giving a relationship between relatedness and virulence that is in the opposite direction to that usually predicted by virulence theory.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2945
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.2012.0843