Niche formation and metabolic interactions contribute to stable diversity in a spatially structured cyanobacterial community.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how microbial communities maintain stable compositional diversity is a key question in microbial ecology. Studies from pairwise interactions and synthetic communities indicate that metabolic interactions and spatial organisation can influence diversity, but the relevance of these factors in more complex communities is unclear. Here we used a cyanobacterial enrichment community that consistently forms millimetre-scale granular structures, to investigate compositional diversity and its stability. Over a year of passaging in media without significant carbon source, we found stable co-existence of 17 species belonging to diverse bacterial phyla. Metagenomic analysis revealed polysaccharide breakdown genes and complementary vitamin biosynthesis pathways in these species. Supportin

SUBMITTER: Duxbury SJN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12416818 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature