Data from: Bacterial quorum sensing and metabolic incentives to cooperate

The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses a cell-cell communication system termed “quorum sensing” to control production of public goods, extracellular products that can be used by any community member. Not all individuals respond to quorum-sensing signals and synthesize public goods. Such social cheaters enjoy the benefits of the products secreted by cooperators. There are some P. aeruginosa cellular enzymes controlled by quorum sensing, and we show that quorum sensing–controlled expression of such private goods can put a metabolic constraint on social cheating and prevent a tragedy of the commons. Metabolic constraint of social cheating provides an explanation for private-goods regulation by a cooperative system and has general implications for population biology, infection control, and stabilization of quorum-sensing circuits in synthetic biology.

机会致病菌铜绿假单胞菌（Pseudomonas aeruginosa）依托一套被命名为“群体感应（quorum sensing）”的细胞间通信系统，调控公共物品的合成：这类胞外产物可被群落内任意成员共享利用。并非所有细菌个体都会响应群体感应信号并合成公共物品，这类社会欺骗者可坐享合作者分泌产物带来的收益。部分受群体感应调控的铜绿假单胞菌胞内酶属于私人物品范畴，本研究证实，对这类私人物品进行群体感应依赖性表达，可对社会欺骗行为施加代谢约束，从而避免公地悲剧的发生。社会欺骗的代谢约束机制为合作系统调控私人物品提供了理论解释，同时对种群生物学、感染防控以及合成生物学中群体感应回路的稳定构建具有普适性参考价值。