Cheating on the edge.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 18648645.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0002763 and PMC identifier 2453231.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
We present the results of an individual agent-based model of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Our model examines antibiotic resistance when two strategies exist: "producers"--who secrete a substance that breaks down antibiotics--and nonproducers ("cheats") who do not secrete, or carry the machinery associated with secretion. The model allows for populations of up to 10,000, in which bacteria are affected by their nearest neighbors, and we assume cheaters die when there are no producers in their neighborhood. Each of 10,000 slots on our grid (a torus) could be occupied by a producer or a nonproducer, or could (temporarily) be unoccupied. The most surprising and dramatic result we uncovered is that when producers and nonproducers coexist at equilibrium, nonproducers are almost always found on the edges of clusters of producers.
Medical subject headings
- Anti-Bacterial Agents
- Bacterial Physiological Phenomena
- Drug Resistance, Bacterial