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. 2017 Feb 13;7:42561. doi: 10.1038/srep42561

Figure 1. Exploitation by cheaters contributes to the rescue of cooperation.

Figure 1

(A) Typical population dynamics obtained with an in silico model of a microbial community, which is organized as a transient metapopulation (Fig. S1) (Materials and Methods). Growth depends on an essential public good produced by the “cooperator” individuals. When “cheaters” invade, the decline in the amount of public good drives the collapse of the total population. This collapse paradoxically determines its subsequent revival. (B) Revival is coupled to the endogenous emergence of variability in the composition of the groups (constituting the metapopulation) when the population is falling12,21, and the following occurrence of groups only constituted by cooperators. For the time window highlighted in (A), we display group composition (bottom; ratio of cooperators on each group is colored according to the gradient shown; white squares denote empty groups, of a total of N = 30), intergroup diversity (top; black curve, quantified as variance in group composition), and number of empty groups (top; pink curve).