Mutualistic cross-feeding in microbial systems generates bistability via an Allee effect.

ABSTRACT: In microbial ecosystems, species not only compete for common resources but may also display mutualistic interactions as a result from metabolic cross-feeding. Such mutualism can lead to bistability. Depending on the initial population sizes, species will either survive or go extinct. Various phenomenological models have been suggested to describe bistability in mutualistic systems. However, these models do not account for interaction mediators such as nutrients. In contrast, nutrient-explicit models do not provide an intuitive understanding of what causes bistability. Here, we reduce a theoretical nutrient-explicit model of two mutualistic cross-feeders in a chemostat, uncovering an explicit relation to a growth model with an Allee effect. We show that the dilution rate in the chemostat le

SUBMITTER: Vet S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7210978 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature