Microbial invasion of a toxic medium is facilitated by a resident community but inhibited as the community co-evolves
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Date
2022-12
Publication Type
Journal Article
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yes
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Abstract
Predicting whether microbial invaders will colonize an environment is critical for managing natural and engineered ecosystems, and controlling infectious disease. Invaders often face competition by resident microbes. But how invasions play out in communities dominated by facilitative interactions is less clear. We previously showed that growth medium toxicity can promote facilitation between four bacterial species, as species that cannot grow alone rely on others to survive. Following the same logic, here we allowed other bacterial species to invade the four-species community and found that invaders could more easily colonize a toxic medium when the community was present. In a more benign environment instead, invasive species that could survive alone colonized more successfully when the residents were absent. Next, we asked whether early colonists could exclude future ones through a priority effect, by inoculating the invaders into the resident community only after its members had co-evolved for 44 weeks. Compared to the ancestral community, the co-evolved resident community was more competitive toward invaders and less affected by them. Our experiments show how communities may assemble by facilitating one another in harsh, sterile environments, but that arriving after community members have co-evolved can limit invasion success.
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published
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Journal / series
Volume
16 (12)
Pages / Article No.
2644 - 2652
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Date collected
Date created
Subject
Microbial ecology
Organisational unit
09666 - Alexander, Jake (ehemalig) / Alexander, Jake (former)
Notes
Funding
678841 - Novel`interactions and species’ responses to climate change (EC)