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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access published online on July 19, 2006
Behavioral Ecology, 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
Received August 17, 2005
Revised May 25, 2006
Accepted May 26, 2006

Article

Variable patterns of density-dependent survival in social bacteria

Supriya V. Kadam 1 and Gregory J. Velicer 1 *

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

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Gregory J. Velicer, E-mail: gregory.velicer{at}tuebingen.mpg.de


  Abstract

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.

Keywords: Allee effect; inverse density dependence; natural variation; social development.
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