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Cooperation and virulence in acute Pseudomonas aeruginosainfections
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Harrison, Freya, Browning, Lucy E., Vos, Michiel and Buckling, Angus (2006) Cooperation and virulence in acute Pseudomonas aeruginosainfections. BMC Biology, 4 (1). 21. doi:10.1186/1741-7007-4-21 ISSN 1741-7007.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-4-21
Abstract
Background
Efficient host exploitation by parasites is frequently likely to depend on cooperative behaviour. Under these conditions, mixed-strain infections are predicted to show lower virulence (host mortality) than are single-clone infections, due to competition favouring non-contributing social 'cheats' whose presence will reduce within-host growth. We tested this hypothesis using the cooperative production of iron-scavenging siderophores by the pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa in an insect host.
Results
We found that infection by siderophore-producing bacteria (cooperators) results in more rapid host death than does infection by non-producers (cheats), and that mixtures of both result in intermediate levels of virulence. Within-host bacterial growth rates exhibited the same pattern. Crucially, cheats were more successful in mixed infections compared with single-clone infections, while the opposite was true of cooperators.
Conclusion
These data demonstrate that mixed clone infections can favour the evolution of social cheats, and thus decrease virulence when parasite growth is dependent on cooperative behaviours.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Life Sciences (2010- ) | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | BMC Biology | ||||
Publisher: | BioMed Central Ltd. | ||||
ISSN: | 1741-7007 | ||||
Official Date: | 2006 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 4 | ||||
Number: | 1 | ||||
Article Number: | 21 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1186/1741-7007-4-21 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) |
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