Toxicity drives facilitation between 4 bacterial species.

ABSTRACT: Competition between microbes is extremely common, with many investing in mechanisms to harm other strains and species. Yet positive interactions between species have also been documented. What makes species help or harm each other is currently unclear. Here, we studied the interactions between 4 bacterial species capable of degrading metal working fluids (MWF), an industrial coolant and lubricant, which contains growth substrates as well as toxic biocides. We were surprised to find only positive or neutral interactions between the 4 species. Using mathematical modeling and further experiments, we show that positive interactions in this community were likely due to the toxicity of MWF, whereby each species' detoxification benefited the others by facilitating their survival, such that they c

SUBMITTER: Piccardi P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6690002 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature