Competing Clones

Competition and cooperation shape the characteristics of populations at all levels, from species communities to cells in a multicellular organism. Interactions between cells are especially important in tumours: cancerous cells outcompete healthy ones by multiplying faster, but relations between the cancerous cells themselves also affect growth. Different populations of cells, or subclones, coexist within tumours, competing for dominance yet also cooperating by sharing useful molecules, known as growth factors. Making these is costly, so selfish cells, which don’t produce them, have a competitive advantage over those that do; however, they'll grow more slowly when no producing cells are around to help. These conflicting pressures can lead to a stable mix of cells, represented by the mosaic above – patches of non-cooperative cells (in grey), existing among the cooperators (in pink). Understanding how this diversity arises is important, as the composition of tumours will affect their growth and response to treatment.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Emmanuelle Briolat

Writer

A researcher specialising in visual signals in Lepidoptera, camouflage and the effects of light pollution, Emmanuelle’s writing covers a range of topics, from biomedical research to children’s books about moth defences.

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• Image by Marco Archetti
• University of East Anglia, UK
• Originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Research published in PNAS, February 2015