dc.contributor.author | Estrela, S | |
dc.contributor.author | Gudelj, I | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2013-06-03T14:10:35Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2010-11-29 | |
dc.description.abstract | The act of cross-feeding whereby unrelated species exchange nutrients is a common feature of microbial interactions and could be considered a form of reciprocal altruism or reciprocal cooperation. Past theoretical work suggests that the evolution of cooperative cross-feeding in nature may be more challenging than for other types of cooperation. Here we re-evaluate a mathematical model used previously to study persistence of cross-feeding and conclude that the maintenance of cross-feeding interactions could be favoured for a larger parameter ranges than formerly observed. Strikingly, we also find that large populations of cross-feeders are not necessarily vulnerable to extinction from an initially small number of cheats who receive the benefit of cross-feeding but do not reciprocate in this cooperative interaction. This could explain the widespread cooperative cross-feeding observed in natural populations. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | Vol. 5, Issue 11, article e14121 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1371/journal.pone.0014121 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/9810 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | Public Library of Science | en_GB |
dc.relation.url | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21152428 | en_GB |
dc.title | Evolution of cooperative cross-feeding could be less challenging than originally thought | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.date.available | 2013-06-03T14:10:35Z | |
exeter.place-of-publication | United States | |
dc.description | Copyright: © 2010 Estrela, Gudelj. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.journal | PLoS One | en_GB |