The role of competition versus cooperation in microbial community coalescence

New microbial communities often arise through the mixing of two or more separately assembled parent communities, a phenomenon that has been termed “community coalescence”. Understanding how the interaction structures of complex parent communities determine the outcomes of coalescence events is an im...

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Autores principales:	Pablo Lechón-Alonso, Tom Clegg, Jacob Cook, Thomas P. Smith, Samraat Pawar
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Materias:	Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/1eb96b3520954532b89da87604a059e5
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:1eb96b3520954532b89da87604a059e52021-11-25T05:42:05ZThe role of competition versus cooperation in microbial community coalescence1553-734X1553-7358https://doaj.org/article/1eb96b3520954532b89da87604a059e52021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8601617/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1553-734Xhttps://doaj.org/toc/1553-7358New microbial communities often arise through the mixing of two or more separately assembled parent communities, a phenomenon that has been termed “community coalescence”. Understanding how the interaction structures of complex parent communities determine the outcomes of coalescence events is an important challenge. While recent work has begun to elucidate the role of competition in coalescence, that of cooperation, a key interaction type commonly seen in microbial communities, is still largely unknown. Here, using a general consumer-resource model, we study the combined effects of competitive and cooperative interactions on the outcomes of coalescence events. To do so, we simulate coalescence events between pairs of communities with different degrees of competition for shared carbon resources and cooperation through cross-feeding on leaked metabolic by-products (facilitation). We also study how structural and functional properties of post-coalescence communities evolve when they are subjected to repeated coalescence events. We find that in coalescence events, the less competitive and more cooperative parent communities contribute a higher proportion of species to the new community because of their superior ability to deplete resources and resist invasions. Consequently, when a community is subjected to repeated coalescence events, it gradually evolves towards being less competitive and more cooperative, as well as more speciose, robust and efficient in resource use. Encounters between microbial communities are becoming increasingly frequent as a result of anthropogenic environmental change, and there is great interest in how the coalescence of microbial communities affects environmental and human health. Our study provides new insights into the mechanisms behind microbial community coalescence, and a framework to predict outcomes based on the interaction structures of parent communities. Author summary In nature, new microbial communities often arise from the fusion of whole, previously separate communities (community coalescence). Despite the crucial role that interactions among microbes play in the dynamics of complex communities, our ability to predict how these affect the outcomes of coalescence events remains limited. Here, using a general mathematical model, we study how the structure of species interactions confers an advantage upon a microbial community when it encounters another, and how communities evolve after undergoing repeated coalescence events. We find that competitive interactions between species preclude their survival upon a coalescence event, while cooperative interactions are advantageous for post-coalescence survival. Furthermore, after a community is exposed to many coalescence events, the remaining species become less competitive and more cooperative. Ultimately, this drives the community evolution, yielding post-coalescence communities that are more species-rich, productive, and resistant to invasions. There are many potential environmental and health implications of microbial community coalescence, which will benefit from the theoretical insights that we offer here about the fundamental mechanisms underlying this phenomenon.Pablo Lechón-AlonsoTom CleggJacob CookThomas P. SmithSamraat PawarPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleBiology (General)QH301-705.5ENPLoS Computational Biology, Vol 17, Iss 11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Biology (General) QH301-705.5
spellingShingle	Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Pablo Lechón-Alonso Tom Clegg Jacob Cook Thomas P. Smith Samraat Pawar The role of competition versus cooperation in microbial community coalescence
description	New microbial communities often arise through the mixing of two or more separately assembled parent communities, a phenomenon that has been termed “community coalescence”. Understanding how the interaction structures of complex parent communities determine the outcomes of coalescence events is an important challenge. While recent work has begun to elucidate the role of competition in coalescence, that of cooperation, a key interaction type commonly seen in microbial communities, is still largely unknown. Here, using a general consumer-resource model, we study the combined effects of competitive and cooperative interactions on the outcomes of coalescence events. To do so, we simulate coalescence events between pairs of communities with different degrees of competition for shared carbon resources and cooperation through cross-feeding on leaked metabolic by-products (facilitation). We also study how structural and functional properties of post-coalescence communities evolve when they are subjected to repeated coalescence events. We find that in coalescence events, the less competitive and more cooperative parent communities contribute a higher proportion of species to the new community because of their superior ability to deplete resources and resist invasions. Consequently, when a community is subjected to repeated coalescence events, it gradually evolves towards being less competitive and more cooperative, as well as more speciose, robust and efficient in resource use. Encounters between microbial communities are becoming increasingly frequent as a result of anthropogenic environmental change, and there is great interest in how the coalescence of microbial communities affects environmental and human health. Our study provides new insights into the mechanisms behind microbial community coalescence, and a framework to predict outcomes based on the interaction structures of parent communities. Author summary In nature, new microbial communities often arise from the fusion of whole, previously separate communities (community coalescence). Despite the crucial role that interactions among microbes play in the dynamics of complex communities, our ability to predict how these affect the outcomes of coalescence events remains limited. Here, using a general mathematical model, we study how the structure of species interactions confers an advantage upon a microbial community when it encounters another, and how communities evolve after undergoing repeated coalescence events. We find that competitive interactions between species preclude their survival upon a coalescence event, while cooperative interactions are advantageous for post-coalescence survival. Furthermore, after a community is exposed to many coalescence events, the remaining species become less competitive and more cooperative. Ultimately, this drives the community evolution, yielding post-coalescence communities that are more species-rich, productive, and resistant to invasions. There are many potential environmental and health implications of microbial community coalescence, which will benefit from the theoretical insights that we offer here about the fundamental mechanisms underlying this phenomenon.
format	article
author	Pablo Lechón-Alonso Tom Clegg Jacob Cook Thomas P. Smith Samraat Pawar
author_facet	Pablo Lechón-Alonso Tom Clegg Jacob Cook Thomas P. Smith Samraat Pawar
author_sort	Pablo Lechón-Alonso
title	The role of competition versus cooperation in microbial community coalescence
title_short	The role of competition versus cooperation in microbial community coalescence
title_full	The role of competition versus cooperation in microbial community coalescence
title_fullStr	The role of competition versus cooperation in microbial community coalescence
title_full_unstemmed	The role of competition versus cooperation in microbial community coalescence
title_sort	role of competition versus cooperation in microbial community coalescence
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/1eb96b3520954532b89da87604a059e5
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The role of competition versus cooperation in microbial community coalescence

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