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EXPLAINING THE SOCIOBIOLOGY OF PYOVERDIN PRODUCING PSEUDOMONAS : A COMMENT ON ZHANG AND RAINEY (2013)
Author(s) -
Kümmerli Rolf,
RossGillespie Adin
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/evo.12311
Subject(s) - biology , sociobiology , zhàng , siderophore , swarming (honey bee) , trait , social evolution , ecology , evolutionary biology , bacteria , genetics , political science , law , computer science , china , programming language
Over the past decade, there has been enormous interest in understanding the great diversity of microbial cooperative behaviors, including communication, group‐based swarming, fruiting‐body formation, and the secretion of group‐beneficial enzymes and food‐scavenging molecules. Zhang and Rainey, henceforth Z&R, recently contended that sociomicrobiologists have been overzealous in their casting of microbes as inherently social organisms, and too hasty in interpreting microbial behaviors in a social evolutionary framework. This challenge accompanied a set of experiments in which they revisited one of the best‐studied social behaviors in bacteria—the production of diffusible, sharable iron‐scavenging siderophore molecules. Z&R posit that their findings challenge the view that siderophore production is a cooperative trait. Here, we demonstrate that their arguments are flawed, and stem from both technical mistakes and misunderstandings of social evolution theory.