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Cheating is not a phenomenon that is seen only in humans and other species who have high-level cognitive functioning, says a recent study  by researchers from the Max Planck Society.

Scientists looked at some cooperative partnerships in bacteria that did not let them access nutrients of "non-cooperative bacteria". In such microbial groups, various species exchanged nutrients and fed alternate bacterial cells in their surroundings.

It was interesting to observe that the bacteria that did not contribute to the cooperative nutrient production become "spatially excluded" when the cross-feeding interactions took place on two-dimensional surfaces.

The entire network is like a human social web of cooperation or isolation. Whenever there is a "reciprocal exchange of nutrients among bacteria", they save the energy that would need to be tapped if they produce the nutrients individually, which limits their energy production and contributes to the growth of the bacteria.

However, there were some non-cooperating bacteria that would consume, but not contribute anything at all. This put the entire network at risk, so that the rest of the bacteria would isolate them.

"The fact that such a simple principle can effectively stabilize such a complex interaction suggests that similar phenomena may play important roles in natural bacterial communities," Christian Kost, who headed the research, said in a press release.

Kost and his team "created synthetically generated amino acid-producing bacterial mutants that released an increasing amount of amino acids" according to HNGN. They first placed them on a two-dimensional surface, and then checked the behavior of both cooperative and non-cooperative bacteria.

"The importance of this mechanism is due to the fact that no complicated or newly-evolved condition, such as the recognition of potential cooperation partners, needs to be fulfilled to effectively stabilize this long-term partnership," he said. "Two cooperating bacterial strains and a two-dimensional surface are sufficient for this protective effect to occur."

Scientists are now examining the extent of this "synergistic cooperation". Does such a cooperative behaviour take place when more than two species are part of the activity? Moreover, does this happen even in natural environments, such as the soil?