Colicin diversity: a result of eco-evolutionary dynamics

Colicins are plasmids that are carried in Escherichia coli. They code for a toxic protein and for proteins that confer on the host immunity against this toxin. When bacteria carry plasmids their growth rate is reduced. At the same time, the production of toxins makes it possible for colicinogenic bacteria to invade bacterium strains that are not immune. In natural bacterium populations there is a high diversity of colicin types. The reason for the maintenance of this diversity has been the subject of much recent debate. We have studied a simple eco-evolutionary model of the interaction of bacteria with colicins and show that high diversity of colicins is to be expected. We find two different dynamical modes each with a high diversity: a hyperimmunity mode and a multitoxicity mode. Bacteria are immune to most toxins in the first mode but in fact produce very few toxins. In the second mode bacteria are immune only to those toxins that they actually produce. In the second mode toxin levels per bacterium are much higher, whereas immunity levels per bacterium are lower.