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Synthetically engineered microbes reveal interesting principles of cooperation

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Abstract

Cooperation is ubiquitous in biological systems. However, if natural selection favors traits that confer an advantage to one individual over another, then helping others would be paradoxical. Nevertheless, cooperation persists and is critical in maintaining homeostasis in systems ranging from populations of bacteria to groupings of mammals. Developing an understanding of the dynamics and mechanisms by which cooperation operates is critical in understanding ecological and evolutionary relationships. Over the past decade, synthetic biology has emerged as a powerful tool to study social dynamics. By engineering rationally controlled and modulatable behavior into microbes, we have increased our overall understanding of how cooperation enhances, or conversely constrains, populations. Furthermore, it has increased our understanding of how cooperation is maintained within populations, which may provide a useful framework to influence populations by altering cooperation. As many bacterial pathogens require cooperation to infect the host and survive, the principles developed using synthetic biology offer promise of developing novel tools and strategies to treat infections, which may reduce the use of antimicrobial agents. Overall, the use of engineered cooperative microbes has allowed the field to verify existing, and develop novel, theories that may govern cooperative behaviors at all levels of biology.

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Acknowledgements

Our research is supported by a President’s Faculty Research and Development Grant #335318 and #335304 through Nova Southeastern University. The author’s declare that they do not have any conflicts of interest.

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  1. Department of Marine Biology and Environmental Science, Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33314-7796, USA

    Michael D. Dressler & Corey J. Clark

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33314-7796, USA

    Michael D. Dressler, Corey J. Clark, Chelsea A. Thachettu, Yasmine Zakaria, Omar Tonsi Eldakar & Robert P. Smith

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  1. Michael D. Dressler
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Dr. Robert P. Smith completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. During his PhD, he worked with Dr. Myron Smith and studied nonself recognition in the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa. He then transitioned to a post-doctoral position at Duke University where he was a Duke Scholar in Infectious Disease. Under the guidance of Dr. Lingchong You, he used systems and synthetic biology approaches to study antibiotic resistance and cooperation. Currently, Robert is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Work performed in his lab focuses primarily on using a synthetic biology approach to understand the principles driving intra- and interspecific cooperation.

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Dressler, M.D., Clark, C.J., Thachettu, C.A. et al. Synthetically engineered microbes reveal interesting principles of cooperation. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 11, 3–14 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-016-1605-z

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