Quorum-sensing control of antibiotic resistance stabilizes cooperation in Chromobacterium violaceum

Many Proteobacteria use quorum sensing to regulate production of public goods, such as antimicrobials and proteases, that are shared among members of a community. Public goods are vulnerable to exploitation by cheaters, such as quorum sensing-defective mutants. Quorum sensing- regulated private goods, goods that benefit only producing cells, can prevent the emergence of cheaters under certain growth conditions. Previously, we developed a laboratory co-culture model to investigate the importance of quorum-regulated antimicrobials during interspecies competition. In our model, Burkholderia thailandensis and Chromobacterium violaceum each use quorum sensing-controlled antimicrobials to inhibit the other species’ growth. Here, we show that C. violaceum uses quorum sensing to increase resistance to bactobolin, a B. thailandensis antibiotic, by increasing transcription of a putative antibiotic efflux pump. We demonstrate conditions where C. violaceum quorum-defective cheaters emerge and show that in these conditions, bactobolin restrains cheaters. We also demonstrate that bactobolin restrains quorum-defective mutants in our co-culture model, and the increase in antimicrobial-producing cooperators drives the C. violaceum population to become more competitive. Our results describe a mechanism of cheater restraint involving quorum control of efflux pumps and demonstrate that interspecies competition can reinforce cooperative behaviors by placing constraints on quorum sensing-defective mutants.