MacLean, RC;
Fuentes-Hernandez, A;
Greig, D;
Hurst, LD;
Gudelj, I;
(2010)
A Mixture of "Cheats'' and "Co-Operators'' Can Enable Maximal Group Benefit.
PLOS BIOL
, 8
(9)
, Article e1000486. 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000486.
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Abstract
Is a group best off if everyone co-operates? Theory often considers this to be so (e. g. the "conspiracy of doves''), this understanding underpinning social and economic policy. We observe, however, that after competition between "cheat'' and "co-operator'' strains of yeast, population fitness is maximized under co-existence. To address whether this might just be a peculiarity of our experimental system or a result with broader applicability, we assemble, benchmark, dissect, and test a systems model. This reveals the conditions necessary to recover the unexpected result. These are 3-fold: (a) that resources are used inefficiently when they are abundant, (b) that the amount of co-operation needed cannot be accurately assessed, and (c) the population is structured, such that co-operators receive more of the resource than the cheats. Relaxing any of the assumptions can lead to population fitness being maximized when cheats are absent, which we experimentally demonstrate. These three conditions will often be relevant, and hence in order to understand the trajectory of social interactions, understanding the dynamics of the efficiency of resource utilization and accuracy of information will be necessary.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | A Mixture of "Cheats'' and "Co-Operators'' Can Enable Maximal Group Benefit |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000486 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000486 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2010 MacLean et al. 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. This work is funded by the Royal Society, Conacyt, NERC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. |
| Keywords: | COUPLED RECEPTOR GPR1, WINE YEAST STRAINS, SACCHAROMYCES-CEREVISIAE, PRISONERS-DILEMMA, MICROBIAL-POPULATIONS, ESCHERICHIA-COLI, SNOWDRIFT GAME, SUC GENES, COOPERATION, SUCROSE |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/408862 |
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