Cooperation in microbial communities via production of public goods is susceptible to social cheating, since selfish individuals that do not contribute to their synthesis but benefit from their production thrive in the presence of cooperators. This behavior has been observed in the laboratory using bacterial and yeast models. Moreover, growing evidence indicates that cheating is frequent in natural microbial communities. In the laboratory, social cheating can promote population collapse or “tragedy of the commons” when excessive. Nevertheless, there are diverse mechanisms that counteract cheating in microbes, as well as theoretical and experimental evidence that suggests possible beneficial roles of social cheaters for the microbial populations. In this mini review manuscript we compile and discuss such possible roles.

中文翻译：

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社会作弊者的光明面：“社会作弊者”在微生物群落中的潜在有益作用

通过生产公共产品在微生物群落中进行合作很容易受到社会的欺骗，因为自私的人虽然无助于其合成，但在合作者的参与下能从其生产中受益，因此壮成长。在实验室中使用细菌和酵母模型已经观察到这种行为。此外，越来越多的证据表明，在自然微生物群落中经常发生作弊行为。在实验室里，社交作弊过多​​会加剧人口崩溃或“公地悲剧”。但是，有多种机制可以抵消微生物中的作弊行为，还有理论和实验证据表明社交作弊者可能对微生物种群产生有益的作用。在此迷你审稿中，我们汇编并讨论了这种可能的作用。