Emergence of alternative stable states in microbial communities undergoing horizontal gene transfer.

ABSTRACT: Microbial communities living in the same environment often display alternative stable states, each characterized by a unique composition of species. Understanding the origin and determinants of microbiome multistability has broad implications in environments, human health, and microbiome engineering. However, despite its conceptual importance, how multistability emerges in complex communities remains largely unknown. Here, we focused on the role of horizontal gene transfer (HGT), one important aspect mostly overlooked in previous studies, on the stability landscape of microbial populations. Combining mathematical modeling and numerical simulations, we demonstrate that, when mobile genetic elements (MGEs) only affect bacterial growth rates, increasing HGT rate in general promotes multistabi

SUBMITTER: Hong J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11875537 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature