Species matter for predicting the functioning of evolving microbial communities - An eco-evolutionary model.

ABSTRACT: Humans depend on microbial communities for numerous ecosystem services such as global nutrient cycles, plant growth and their digestive health. Yet predicting dynamics and functioning of these complex systems is hard, making interventions to enhance functioning harder still. One simplifying approach is to assume that functioning can be predicted from the set of enzymes present in a community. Alternatively, ecological and evolutionary dynamics of species, which depend on how enzymes are packaged among species, might be vital for predicting community functioning. I investigate these alternatives by extending classical chemostat models of bacterial growth to multiple species that evolve in their use of chemical resources. Ecological interactions emerge from patterns of resource use, which ch

SUBMITTER: Barraclough TG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6699713 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature