Microbial population dynamics and evolutionary outcomes under extreme energy limitation.

ABSTRACT: Microorganisms commonly inhabit energy-limited ecosystems where cellular maintenance and reproduction is highly constrained. To gain insight into how individuals persist under such conditions, we derived demographic parameters from a collection of 21 heterotrophic bacterial taxa by censusing 100 populations in an effectively closed system for 1,000 d. All but one taxon survived prolonged resource scarcity, yielding estimated times to extinction ranging over four orders of magnitude from 10⁰ to 10⁵ y. Our findings corroborate reports of long-lived bacteria recovered from ancient environmental samples, while providing insight into mechanisms of persistence. As death rates declined over time, lifespan was extended through the scavenging of dead cells. Although reproducti

SUBMITTER: Shoemaker WR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8379937 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature