Cooperation in carbon source degradation shapes spatial self-organization of microbial consortia on hydrated surfaces.

ABSTRACT: Mounting evidence suggests that natural microbial communities exhibit a high level of spatial organization at the micrometric scale that facilitate ecological interactions and support biogeochemical cycles. Microbial patterns are difficult to study definitively in natural environments due to complex biodiversity, observability and variable physicochemical factors. Here, we examine how trophic dependencies give rise to self-organized spatial patterns of a well-defined bacterial consortium grown on hydrated surfaces. The model consortium consisted of two Pseudomonas putida mutant strains that can fully degrade the aromatic hydrocarbon toluene. We demonstrated that obligate cooperation in toluene degradation (cooperative mutualism) favored convergence of 1:1 partner ratio and strong intermixi

SUBMITTER: Tecon R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5338011 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature