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From income to capital breeding: when diversified strategies sustain species coexistence.

ABSTRACT: There is empirical evidence of many diversified ways for energy to be acquired and allocated to reproduction, notably with strategies ranging from strict income breeding (females fueling their gametes with energy gained concomitantly during reproduction) to strict capital breeding (females storing nutrients prior reproduction). Until now, the question of whether diversification of these strategies might impact the way communities are organized has not been considered. Here, we suggest that diversified resource allocation strategies among competing species may contribute to their coexistence. We examined this hypothesis by focusing on communities composed of four phytophagous insect species that coexist and compete for egg-laying sites. From wild-caught females, we determined precisely the breeding period of each species and we described their resource acquisition and allocation to reproduction dynamics. We quantified in each species the total amount of larval energy stored by newly-emerging females and then monitored the total energy budget of females caught in the field before and throughout their breeding period. We found that the four sibling weevil species are markedly segregated along the income-capital-breeding continuum, which is correlated with clear time partitioning in their laying activity. Our results suggest that diversified resource allocation strategies might contribute to time partitioning of plant resources exploitation and thus indirectly to their coexistence. This work should further encourage studies examining the extent to which competitive coexistence might be affected by diversification of income-capital breeding strategies together with the intensity of interspecific competition, and considering the divergent evolution of these strategies.

SUBMITTER: Pelisson PF

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3785430 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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From income to capital breeding: when diversified strategies sustain species coexistence.

Pélisson Pierre-François PF Bel-Venner Marie-Claude MC Giron David D Menu Frédéric F Venner Samuel S

PloS one 20130927 9

There is empirical evidence of many diversified ways for energy to be acquired and allocated to reproduction, notably with strategies ranging from strict income breeding (females fueling their gametes with energy gained concomitantly during reproduction) to strict capital breeding (females storing nutrients prior reproduction). Until now, the question of whether diversification of these strategies might impact the way communities are organized has not been considered. Here, we suggest that diver ...[more]

PMID: 24086694

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Project description:Bacterial communities are often exposed to temporal variations in resource availability, which exceed bacterial generation times and thereby affect bacterial coexistence. Bacterial population dynamics are also shaped by bacteriophages, which are a main cause of bacterial mortality. Several strategies are proposed in the literature to describe infections by phages, such as "Killing the Winner", "Piggyback the loser" (PtL) or "Piggyback the Winner" (PtW). The two temperate phage strategies PtL and PtW are defined by a change from lytic to lysogenic infection when the host density changes, from high to low or from low to high, respectively. To date, the occurrence of different phage strategies and their response to environmental variability is poorly understood. In our study, we developed a microbial trophic network model using ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and performed 'in silico' experiments. To model the switch from the lysogenic to the lytic cycle, we modified the lysis rate of infected bacteria and their growth was turned on or off using a density-dependent switching point. We addressed whether and how the different phage strategies facilitate bacteria coexistence competing for limiting resources. We also studied the impact of a fluctuating resource inflow to evaluate the response of the different phage strategies to environmental variability. Our results show that the viral shunt (i.e. nutrient release after bacterial lysis) leads to an enrichment of the system. This enrichment enables bacterial coexistence at lower resource concentrations. We were able to show that an established, purely lytic model leads to stable bacterial coexistence despite fluctuating resources. Both temperate phage models differ in their coexistence patterns. The model of PtW yields stable bacterial coexistence at a limited range of resource supply and is most sensitive to resource fluctuations. Interestingly, the purely lytic phage strategy and PtW both result in stable bacteria coexistence at oligotrophic conditions. The PtL model facilitates stable bacterial coexistence over a large range of stable and fluctuating resource inflow. An increase in bacterial growth rate results in a higher resilience to resource variability for the PtL and the lytic infection model. We propose that both temperate phage strategies represent different mechanisms of phages coping with environmental variability. Our study demonstrates how phage strategies can maintain bacterial coexistence in constant and fluctuating environments.

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From income to capital breeding: when diversified strategies sustain species coexistence.

Publications

From income to capital breeding: when diversified strategies sustain species coexistence.

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