A shared limiting resource leads to competitive exclusion in a cross-feeding system.

ABSTRACT: Species interactions and coexistence are often dependent upon environmental conditions. When two cross-feeding bacteria exchange essential nutrients, the addition of a cross-fed nutrient to the environment can release one species from its dependence on the other. Previous studies suggest that continued coexistence depends on relative growth rates: coexistence is maintained if the slower-growing species is released from its dependence on the other, but if the faster-growing species is released, the slower-growing species will be lost (a hypothesis that we call 'feed the faster grower' or FFG). Using invasion-from-rare experiments with two reciprocally cross-feeding bacteria, genome-scale metabolic modelling and classical ecological models, we explored the potential for coexistence when one

SUBMITTER: Hammarlund SP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6634945 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature