Title

Programmed Allee Effect in Bacteria Causes a Tradeoff Between Population Spread and Survival

Authors

Robert P. Smith, Duke UniversityFollow
Cheemang Tan, Carnegie Mellon University
Jaydeep K. Srimani, Duke University
Anand Pai, Duke University
Katherine A. Riccione, Duke University
Hao Song, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Lingchong You, Duke University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-4-2014

Publication Title

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Keywords

Synthetic Biology, Quorum Sensing, Invasive Species, Cooperation, Bacterial Communication

ISSN

1091-6490

Volume

111

Issue/No.

5

First Page

1969

Last Page

1974

Abstract

Dispersal is necessary for spread into new habitats, but it has also been shown to inhibit spread. Theoretical studies have suggested that the presence of a strong Allee effect may account for these counterintuitive observations. Experimental demonstration of this notion is lacking due to the difficulty in quantitative analysis of such phenomena in a natural setting. We engineered Escherichia coli to exhibit a strong Allee effect and examined how the Allee effect would affect the spread of the engineered bacteria. We showed that the Allee effect led to a biphasic dependence of bacterial spread on the dispersal rate: spread is promoted for intermediate dispersal rates but inhibited at low or high dispersal rates. The shape of this dependence is contingent upon the initial density of the source population. Moreover, the Allee effect led to a tradeoff between effectiveness of population spread and survival: increasing the number of target patches during dispersal allows more effective spread, but it simultaneously increases the risk of failing to invade or of going extinct. We also observed that total population growth is transiently maximized at an intermediate number of target patches. Finally, we demonstrate that fluctuations in cell growth may contribute to the paradoxical relationship between dispersal and spread. Our results provide direct experimental evidence that the Allee effect can explain the apparently paradoxical effects of dispersal on spread and have implications for guiding the spread of cooperative organisms.

Additional Comments

PubMed ID #24449896

NSUWorks Citation

Smith, Robert P.; Cheemang Tan; Jaydeep K. Srimani; Anand Pai; Katherine A. Riccione; Hao Song; and Lingchong You. 2014. "Programmed Allee Effect in Bacteria Causes a Tradeoff Between Population Spread and Survival." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111, (5): 1969-1974. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cnso_bio_facarticles/9