Leave or Stay: Simulating Motility and Fitness of Microorganisms in Dynamic Aquatic Ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: Motility is a key adaptation factor in scarce marine environments inhabited by bacteria. The question of how a capacity for adaptive migrations influences the success of a microbial population in various conditions is a challenge addressed in this study. We employed the agent-based model of competition of motile and sedentary microbial populations in a confined aquatic environment supplied with a periodic batch nutrient source to assess the fitness of both. Such factors as nutrient concentration in a batch, batch period, mortality type and energetic costs of migration were considered to determine the conditions favouring different strategies: Nomad of a motile population and Settler of a sedentary one. The modelling results demonstrate that dynamic and nutrient-scarce environments favour m

SUBMITTER: Klimenko A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8533222 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature