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Competition and predation as possible causes of bacterial rarity.

ABSTRACT: We assembled communities of bacteria and exposed them to different nutrient concentrations with or without predation by protists. Taxa that were rare in the field were less abundant at low nutrient concentrations than common taxa, independent of predation. However, some taxa that were rare in the field became highly abundant in the assembled communities, especially under ample nutrient availability. This high abundance points at a possible competitive advantage of some rare bacterial taxa under nutrient-rich conditions. In contrast, the abundance of most rare bacterial taxa decreased at low resource availability. Since low resource availability will be the prevailing situation in most soils, our data suggests that under those conditions poor competitiveness for limiting resources may contribute to bacterial rarity. Interestingly, taxa that were rare in the field and most successful under predator-free conditions in the lab also tended to be more reduced by predation than common taxa. This suggests that predation contributes to rarity of bacterial taxa in the field. We further discuss whether there may be a trade-off between competitiveness and predation resistance. The substantial variability among taxa in their responses to competition and predation suggests that other factors, for example abiotic conditions and dispersal ability, also influence the local abundance of soil bacteria.

SUBMITTER: Kurm V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6850713 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Competition and predation as possible causes of bacterial rarity.

Kurm Viola V van der Putten Wim H WH Weidner Simone S Geisen Stefan S Snoek Basten L BL Bakx Tanja T Hol Wilhelmina H Gera WHG

Environmental microbiology 20190318 4

We assembled communities of bacteria and exposed them to different nutrient concentrations with or without predation by protists. Taxa that were rare in the field were less abundant at low nutrient concentrations than common taxa, independent of predation. However, some taxa that were rare in the field became highly abundant in the assembled communities, especially under ample nutrient availability. This high abundance points at a possible competitive advantage of some rare bacterial taxa under ...[more]

PMID: 30803145

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Project description:Although the relationship between bacteria and lytic bacteriophage is fundamentally antagonistic, these microbes not only coexist but thrive side by side in myriad ecological environments. The mechanisms by which coexistence is achieved, however, are not fully understood. By examining Escherichia coli and bacteriophage T7 population dynamics at the single-cell and single-virion level using a novel microfluidics assay, we observed bacteria growing "persistently" when perfused with high-titer bacteriophage. Bacteriophage persistence occurred at a frequency five orders of magnitude higher than is expected from the natural selection of bacteriophage-resistant mutants. Rather, the frequency of persistence was correlated with the degree to which the bacteria were mechanically compressed by the microfluidic perfusion chamber. Using a combination of mutagenesis and fluorescent imaging techniques, we discovered that compression induces persistence by activating the Rcs phosphorelay pathway, which results in the synthesis of extracellular capsule that sterically blocks bacteriophage adsorption. Other forms of mechanical perturbation also promoted Rcs activity and persistence. These findings have important implications for our understanding of microbial ecology in many important environments, including the gut and the soil, where bacteria grow in confinement. IMPORTANCE Bacteria and bacteriophage form one of the most important predator-prey relationships on earth, yet how the long-term stability of this ecological interaction is achieved is unclear. Here, we demonstrate that Escherichia coli can rapidly grow during bacteriophage predation if they are doing so in spatially confined environments. This discovery revises our understanding of bacteria-bacteriophage population dynamics in many real-world environments where bacteria grow in confinement, such as the gut and the soil. Additionally, this result has clear implications for the potential of bacteriophage therapy and the role of mechanosensation during bacterial pathogenesis.

Dataset Information

Competition and predation as possible causes of bacterial rarity.

Publications

Competition and predation as possible causes of bacterial rarity.

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