Overcoming toxicity: How nonantagonistic microbes manage to thrive in boom-and-bust environments.

ABSTRACT: Antagonistic interactions are critical determinants of microbial community stability and composition, offering host benefits such as pathogen protection and providing avenues for antimicrobial control. While the ability to eliminate competitors confers an advantage to antagonistic microbes, it often incurs a fitness cost. Consequently, many microbes only produce toxins or engage in antagonistic behavior in response to specific cues like quorum sensing molecules or environmental stress. In laboratory settings, antagonistic microbes typically dominate over sensitive ones, raising the question of why both antagonistic and nonantagonistic microbes are found in natural environments and host microbiomes. Here, using both theoretical models and experiments with killer strains of Saccharomyces

SUBMITTER: Wang M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12232701 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature