Cheating fosters species co-existence in well-mixed bacterial communities.

ABSTRACT: Explaining the enormous biodiversity observed in bacterial communities is challenging because ecological theory predicts that competition between species occupying the same niche should lead to the exclusion of less competitive community members. Competitive exclusion should be particularly strong when species compete for a single limiting resource or live in unstructured habitats that offer no refuge for weaker competitors. Here, we describe the 'cheating effect', a form of intra-specific competition that can counterbalance between-species competition, thereby fostering biodiversity in unstructured habitats. Using experimental communities consisting of the strong competitor Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) and its weaker counterpart Burkholderia cenocepacia (BC), we show that co-existence is i

SUBMITTER: Leinweber A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5437929 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature