Population cycles and species diversity in dynamic Kill-the-Winner model of microbial ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: Determinants of species diversity in microbial ecosystems remain poorly understood. Bacteriophages are believed to increase the diversity by the virtue of Kill-the-Winner infection bias preventing the fastest growing organism from taking over the community. Phage-bacterial ecosystems are traditionally described in terms of the static equilibrium state of Lotka-Volterra equations in which bacterial growth is exactly balanced by losses due to phage predation. Here we consider a more dynamic scenario in which phage infections give rise to abrupt and severe collapses of bacterial populations whenever they become sufficiently large. As a consequence, each bacterial population in our model follows cyclic dynamics of exponential growth interrupted by sudden declines. The total population of all s

SUBMITTER: Maslov S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5209715 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature