Competition for nutrients increases invasion resistance during assembly of microbial communities.

ABSTRACT: The assembly of microbial communities through sequential invasions of microbial species is challenging to study experimentally. Here, I used genome-scale metabolic models of multiple species to model community assembly. Each such model represents all known biochemical reactions that a species uses to build biomass from nutrients in the environment. Species interactions in such models emerge from first biochemical principles, either through competition for environmental nutrients, or through cross-feeding on metabolic by-products excreted by resident species. I used these models to study 250 community assembly sequences. In each such sequence, a community changes through successive species invasions. During the 250 assembly sequences, communities become more species-rich and invasion-resist

SUBMITTER: Wagner A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9542400 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature