Theory of cooperation in a micro-organismal snow-drift game

TL;DR

This paper develops a mean field model to analyze how micro-organism communities transition between dominance and coexistence states based on nutrient concentrations, aligning well with experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mean field model for microbial cooperation in a snow-drift game framework, predicting phase transitions based on nutrient levels.

Findings

Identifies a phase transition between dominance and coexistence states.

Predicts quantitative trends matching experimental data.

Maps the phase diagram as a function of glucose and histidine concentrations.

Abstract

We present a mean field model for the phase diagram of a community of micro-organisms, interacting through their metabolism so that they are, in effect, engaging in a cooperative social game. We show that as a function of the concentration of the nutrients glucose and histidine, the community undergoes a phase transition separating a state in which one strain is dominant to a state which is characterized by coexisting populations. Our results are in good agreement with recent experimental results, correctly predicting quantitative trends and the phase diagram.