Spatial constraints and stochastic seeding subvert microbial arms race.

ABSTRACT: Surface attached communities of microbes grow in a wide variety of environments. Often, the size of these microbial community is constrained by their physical surroundings. However, little is known about how size constraints of a colony impact the outcome of microbial competitions. Here, we use individual-based models to simulate contact killing between two bacterial strains with different killing rates in a wide range of community sizes. We found that community size has a substantial impact on outcomes; in fact, in some competitions the identity of the most fit strain differs in large and small environments. Specifically, when at a numerical disadvantage, the strain with the slow killing rate is more successful in smaller environments than in large environments. The improved performance i

SUBMITTER: Copeland R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10849242 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature