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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on July 19, 2006
Behavioral Ecology 2006 17(5):833-838; doi:10.1093/beheco/arl018
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Variable patterns of density-dependent survival in social bacteria

Supriya V. Kadam and Gregory J. Velicer

Max-Planck-Institute for Developmental Biology, Spemannstrasse 35, D-72076 Tuebingen, Germany

Address correspondence to G.J. Velicer. E-mail: gregory.velicer{at}tuebingen.mpg.de.

In numerous species of social animals and social microorganisms, fitness is positively dependent on population density, at least in some environments and over some density ranges. This "Allee effect" is observed in the cooperative bacterium Myxococcus xanthus during multicellular fruiting body development, during which the standard laboratory genotype sporulates less efficiently at lower population densities and produces no spores below a minimum threshold density. Here we demonstrate significant quantitative variation in Allee patterns among distinct natural isolates of M. xanthus. Isolates with similar developmental performance at intermediate population densities exhibit stark variation in performance at both very low and very high densities. Such variation has implications for evolutionary performance under fluctuating natural environments. It also suggests that distinct intraspecific populations of social animals and other social microbes with different selective histories may vary in the effects of density on social fitness.

Key words: Allee effect, inverse density dependence, natural variation, social development.


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