Evolution of bidirectional costly mutualism from byproduct consumption
Open accessAbstract
Significance: Organisms frequently exchange costly resources with other species. Theory suggests that this paradoxical cooperation between species might have its origins in waste consumption. When a species benefits from the waste of another, the recipient can evolve to aid the waste producer. The waste producer could then be selected to provide costly resources in return. We previously demonstrated the first step of this theorized process: Salmonella enterica evolved to secrete a costly amino acid to increase access to a byproduct generated by Escherichia coli . Here, we provide demonstration of a waste producer switching to costly cooperation. E. coli repeatedly evolved novel secretion of sugar to feed S. enterica . The results validate long-standing theory about the evolutionary origins of costly mutualism.
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Salmonella cannot directly utilize lactose, but Escherichia coli can metabolize it.
“For instance, Salmonella cannot directly utilize lactose, but Escherichia coli can metabolize it [137].”
From Harnessing bacterial consortia for effective bioremediation: targeted removal of heavy metals, hydrocarbons, and persistent pollutants (2025) · cites this paper as [137]
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Research works printed but not linked: 23
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- Authors
- Harcombe, W. R., Chacón, J. M., Adamowicz, E. M., Chubiz, L. M., & Marx, C. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Harcombe, William R.
- Marx, Christopher J.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2018-10-22
- Volume
- 115
- Issue
- 47
- Pages
- 12000-12004
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC6255176
- OpenAlex
- W2897355487
- Cited by
- 137
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 25.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- IRL - University of Missouri, St. Louis (University of Missouri–St. Louis) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- HHS | NIH | National Institute of General Medical Sciences (1R01-GM121498)
- DOE | SC | Biological and Environmental Research (DE-SC0006731)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Keywords
- Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli, amino acid secretion, microbial evolution
- MeSH terms
- Carbon, Escherichia coli, Biological Evolution, Galactose, Methionine, Symbiosis, Evolution, Molecular, Salmonella enterica, Microbial Interactions
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