Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Resource competition and social conflict in experimental populations of yeast

Nature volume 441, pages 498–501 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Understanding the conditions that promote the maintenance of cooperation is a classic problem in evolutionary biology1,2,3,4,5. The essence of this dilemma is captured by the ‘tragedy of the commons’6: how can a group of individuals that exploit resources in a cooperative manner resist invasion by ‘cheaters’ who selfishly use common resources to maximize their individual reproduction at the expense of the group7,8? Here, we investigate this conflict through experimental competitions between isogenic cheater and cooperator strains of yeast with alternative pathways of glucose metabolism9, and by using mathematical models of microbial biochemistry10. We show that both coexistence and competitive exclusion are possible outcomes of this conflict, depending on the spatial and temporal structure of the environment. Both of these outcomes are driven by trade-offs between the rate and efficiency of conversion of resources into offspring that are mediated by metabolic intermediates.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Seasonal competition between cooperators and cheaters.
Figure 2: Modelling competition between cheaters and cooperators.
Figure 3: Toxic metabolic intermediates create a cost of cheating.
Figure 4: Competition in a spatially heterogeneous environment.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Axelrod, R. & Dion, D. The further evolution of cooperation. Science 242, 1385–1390 (1988)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Axelrod, R. & Hamilton, W. D. The evolution of cooperation. Science 211, 1390–1396 (1981)

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Sachs, J. L., Mueller, U. G., Wilcox, T. P. & Bull, J. J. The evolution of cooperation. Q. Rev. Biol. 79, 135–160 (2004)

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Nowak, M. & Sigmund, K. Chaos and the evolution of cooperation. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 90, 5091–5094 (1993)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Nowak, M., Bonhoeffer, S. & May, R. Spatial games and the maintenance of cooperation. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 91, 4877–4881 (1994)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Hardin, G. The tragedy of the commons. Science 162, 1243–1248 (1968)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Kreft, J.-U. Biofilms promote altruism. Microbiology 150, 2751–2760 (2004)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Pfeiffer, T., Schuster, S. & Bonhoeffer, S. Cooperation and competition in the evolution of ATP-producing pathways. Science 292, 504–507 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Otterstedt, K. et al. Switching the mode of metabolism in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. EMBO Rep. 5, 532–537 (2004)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Pfeiffer, T. & Bonhoeffer, S. Evolution of cross-feeding in microbial populations. Am. Nat. 163, E126–E135 (2004)

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Frick, T. & Schuster, S. An example of the prisoner's dilemma in biochemistry. Naturwissenschaften 90, 327–331 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Elbing, K. et al. Role of hexose transport in control of glycolytic flux in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70, 5323–5330 (2004)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Bauchop, T. & Elsden, S. R. The growth of microorganisms in relation to their supply of energy. J. Gen. Microbiol. 23, 457–469 (1960)

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Ludovico, P., Sousa, M. J., Silva, M. T., Leao, C. & Corte-Real, M. Saccharomyces cerevisiae commits to a programmed cell death process in response to acetic acid. Microbiology 147, 2409–2415 (2001)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Travisano, M. & Velicer, G. J. Strategies of microbial cheater control. Trends Microbiol. 12, 72–78 (2004)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Crespi, B. J. The evolution of social behaviour in microorganisms. Trends Ecol. Evol. 16, 178–183 (2001)

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Greig, D. & Travisano, M. The Prisoner's Dilemma and polymorphism in yeast SUC genes. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 271 (Suppl.), S25–S26 (2004)

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Velicer, G. J. Social strife in the microbial world. Trends Microbiol. 11, 330–337 (2003)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Pfeiffer, T. & Schuster, S. Game-theoretical approaches to studying the evolution of biochemical systems. Trends Biochem. Sci. 30, 20–25 (2005)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. van Dijken, J. P. et al. An interlaboratory comparison of physiological and genetic properties of four Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains. Enzyme Microb. Technol. 26, 706–714 (2000)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This project was funded by grants from NERC to the Center for Population Biology. I. Gudelj was supported by a NERC-EMS Fellowship. The authors would like to thank C. Godfray for comments and C. Brandon for technical assistance. Author Contributions R.C.M. carried out experimental work and wrote the manuscript. I.G. carried out mathematical modelling.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NERC Center for Population Biology, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PY, UK

    R. Craig MacLean

  2. Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Bath, Claverton Down, BA2 7AY, Bath, UK

    Ivana Gudelj

Authors
  1. R. Craig MacLean
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ivana Gudelj
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. Craig MacLean.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Reprints and permissions information is available at npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Notes

Supplementary Notes nature04672-s1.pdf This file contains Supplementary Figure 1, Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Note 1 and Supplementary Equation 1. (PDF 145 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

MacLean, R., Gudelj, I. Resource competition and social conflict in experimental populations of yeast. Nature 441, 498–501 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04624

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04624

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing