Going Against the Family: Perturbation of a Greenbeard Pathway Leads to Falsebeard Cheating

Authors

Peter Lehmann
Mariko Katoh-Kurasawa
Peter Kundert
Gad Shaulsky

Publication Date

11-15-2024

Journal

iScience

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2024.111125

PMID

39502291

PMCID

PMC11536038

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

10-9-2024

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Biological sciences, Biological sciences research methodologies

Abstract

Greenbeards facilitate cooperation by encoding a perceptible signal, the ability to detect it, and a tendency to help others that display it. Falsebeards are hypothetical cheaters that display the signal without being altruistic. Despite many examples of greenbeards, evidence for falsebeards is scarce. The Dictyostelium discoideum tgrB1-tgrC1 allorecognition pathway encodes a greenbeard. It allows development, which yields fruiting bodies with altruistic stalks that increase spore dispersal. Here we show that cells lacking rapgapB, a tgrB1-tgrC1 signaling element, cheat by avoiding the stalk fate and generating more spores in chimeras than in pure populations. rapgapB– cells cheat only on partners with compatible tgrB1-tgrC1 allotypes, suggesting that beard display and recognition are intact but decoupled from altruism. The rapgapB– falsebeard provides a model to study greenbeard maintenance and subversion.

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