Persistent trade-offs balance competition and colonization across centuries.

ABSTRACT: Microbial competition drives rapid adaptation, often forcing organisms to specialize in new ecological niches. Adaptations that improve competitive ability can reduce performance in other environments creating trade-offs. Whether such trade-offs persist in nature-or are eroded as lineages adapt through compensatory changes-remains largely unknown. Here we show that a trade-off between competitive ability and host colonization has been stably maintained in natural Pseudomonas populations for centuries. Wild plant-pathogenic Pseudomonas compete using tailocins-phage-derived molecular weapons that bind to specific cell-surface receptors. Genomic surveys and functional assays reveal that the most broadly lethal tailocins remain rare-while the tailocin's production increases compe

SUBMITTER: Backman T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12642623 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature