Diauxic lags explain unexpected coexistence in multi‐resource environments
Abstract How the coexistence of species is affected by the presence of multiple resources is a major question in microbial ecology. We experimentally demonstrate that differences in diauxic lags, which occur as species deplete their own environments and adapt their metabolisms, allow slow‐growing mi...
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Springer Nature
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Molecular Systems Biology |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.15252/msb.202110630 |
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| author | Blox Bloxham Hyunseok Lee Jeff Gore |
| author_facet | Blox Bloxham Hyunseok Lee Jeff Gore |
| author_sort | Blox Bloxham |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract How the coexistence of species is affected by the presence of multiple resources is a major question in microbial ecology. We experimentally demonstrate that differences in diauxic lags, which occur as species deplete their own environments and adapt their metabolisms, allow slow‐growing microbes to stably coexist with faster‐growing species in multi‐resource environments despite being excluded in single‐resource environments. In our focal example, an Acinetobacter species (Aci2) competitively excludes Pseudomonas aurantiaca (Pa) on alanine and on glutamate. However, they coexist on the combination of both resources. Experiments reveal that Aci2 grows faster but Pa has shorter diauxic lags. We establish a tradeoff between Aci2’s fast growth and Pa’s short lags as their mechanism for coexistence. We model this tradeoff to accurately predict how environmental changes affect community composition. We extend our work by surveying a large set of competitions and observe coexistence nearly four times as frequently when the slow‐grower is the fast‐switcher. Our work illustrates a simple mechanism, based entirely on supplied‐resource growth dynamics, for the emergence of multi‐resource coexistence. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d581bee0da9f4c9c993b00804c9a20ec |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1744-4292 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Springer Nature |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Molecular Systems Biology |
| spelling | doaj-art-d581bee0da9f4c9c993b00804c9a20ec2025-08-20T02:11:55ZengSpringer NatureMolecular Systems Biology1744-42922022-05-0118511310.15252/msb.202110630Diauxic lags explain unexpected coexistence in multi‐resource environmentsBlox Bloxham0Hyunseok Lee1Jeff Gore2Physics of Living Systems, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPhysics of Living Systems, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPhysics of Living Systems, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyAbstract How the coexistence of species is affected by the presence of multiple resources is a major question in microbial ecology. We experimentally demonstrate that differences in diauxic lags, which occur as species deplete their own environments and adapt their metabolisms, allow slow‐growing microbes to stably coexist with faster‐growing species in multi‐resource environments despite being excluded in single‐resource environments. In our focal example, an Acinetobacter species (Aci2) competitively excludes Pseudomonas aurantiaca (Pa) on alanine and on glutamate. However, they coexist on the combination of both resources. Experiments reveal that Aci2 grows faster but Pa has shorter diauxic lags. We establish a tradeoff between Aci2’s fast growth and Pa’s short lags as their mechanism for coexistence. We model this tradeoff to accurately predict how environmental changes affect community composition. We extend our work by surveying a large set of competitions and observe coexistence nearly four times as frequently when the slow‐grower is the fast‐switcher. Our work illustrates a simple mechanism, based entirely on supplied‐resource growth dynamics, for the emergence of multi‐resource coexistence.https://doi.org/10.15252/msb.202110630coexistencecommunity assemblydiauxiefitness tradeoffsresource competition |
| spellingShingle | Blox Bloxham Hyunseok Lee Jeff Gore Diauxic lags explain unexpected coexistence in multi‐resource environments Molecular Systems Biology coexistence community assembly diauxie fitness tradeoffs resource competition |
| title | Diauxic lags explain unexpected coexistence in multi‐resource environments |
| title_full | Diauxic lags explain unexpected coexistence in multi‐resource environments |
| title_fullStr | Diauxic lags explain unexpected coexistence in multi‐resource environments |
| title_full_unstemmed | Diauxic lags explain unexpected coexistence in multi‐resource environments |
| title_short | Diauxic lags explain unexpected coexistence in multi‐resource environments |
| title_sort | diauxic lags explain unexpected coexistence in multi resource environments |
| topic | coexistence community assembly diauxie fitness tradeoffs resource competition |
| url | https://doi.org/10.15252/msb.202110630 |
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