scholarly journals Cooperation Enhances Robustness of Coexistence in Spatially Structured Consortia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinying Ren ◽  
Richard M. Murray
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Diffusion ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Microbial Consortia ◽  
Interspecies Interactions ◽  
Major Goal ◽  
E Coli ◽  
Cooperative Interactions ◽  
Multiple Species ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Synthetic Microbial Consortia

AbstractDesigning synthetic microbial consortia is an emerging area in synthetic biology and a major goal is to realize stable and robust coexistence of multiple species. Co-operation and competition are fundamental intra/interspecies interactions that shape population level behaviors, yet it is not well-understood how these interactions affect the stability and robustness of coexistence. In this paper, we show that communities with cooperative interactions are more robust to population disturbance, e.g., depletion by antibiotics, by forming intermixed spatial patterns. Meanwhile, competition leads to population spatial heterogeneity and more fragile coexistence in communities. Using reaction-diffusion and nonlocal PDE models and simulations of a two-species E. coli consortium, we demonstrate that cooperation is more beneficial than competition in maintaining coexistence in spatially structured consortia, but not in well-mixed environments. This also suggests a trade-off between constructing heterogeneous communities with localized functions and maintaining robust coexistence. The results provide general strategies for engineering spatially structured consortia by designing interspecies interactions and suggest the importance of cooperation for biodiversity in microbial community.

scholarly journals Costless metabolic secretions as drivers of interspecies interactions in microbial ecosystems

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan R. Pacheco ◽  
Mauricio Moel ◽  
Daniel Segrè
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Interactions ◽  
Fitness Cost ◽  
Microbial Consortia ◽  
Interspecies Interactions ◽  
Large Space ◽  
Microbial Ecosystems ◽  
Scale Models ◽  
Genome Scale ◽  
Synthetic Microbial Consortia ◽  
Metabolic Exchange

ABSTRACTMetabolic exchange can mediate beneficial interactions among microbes, helping explain diversity in microbial communities. These interactions are often assumed to involve a fitness cost, prompting questions on how cooperative phenotypes can be stable and withstand the emergence of cheaters. Here we use genome-scale models of metabolism to investigate whether a radically different scenario, the pervasive release of “costless” metabolites (i.e. those that cause no fitness cost to the producing organism), can serve as a prominent mechanism for inter-microbial interactions. By carrying out over 1 million pairwise growth simulations for 14 microbial species in a combinatorial assortment of environmental conditions, we find that there is indeed a large space of metabolites that can be secreted at no cost, which can generate ample cross-feeding opportunities. In addition to providing an atlas of putative costless interdependencies, our modeling also demonstrates that oxygen availability significantly enhances mutualistic interactions by providing more opportunities for metabolic exchange through costless metabolites, resulting in an over-representation of specific ecological network motifs. In addition to helping explain natural diversity, we show how the exchange of costless metabolites can facilitate the engineering of stable synthetic microbial consortia.

scholarly journals The influence of density in population dynamics with strong and weak Allee effect

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamrun Nahar Keya ◽  
Md. Kamrujjaman ◽  
Md. Shafiqul Islam
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Allee Effect ◽  
Global Bifurcation ◽  
Reaction Diffusion ◽  
Logistic Growth ◽  
Allee Effects ◽  
Reaction Diffusion Model ◽  
Positive Steady States ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn this paper, we consider a reaction–diffusion model in population dynamics and study the impact of different types of Allee effects with logistic growth in the heterogeneous closed region. For strong Allee effects, usually, species unconditionally die out and an extinction-survival situation occurs when the effect is weak according to the resource and sparse functions. In particular, we study the impact of the multiplicative Allee effect in classical diffusion when the sparsity is either positive or negative. Negative sparsity implies a weak Allee effect, and the population survives in some domain and diverges otherwise. Positive sparsity gives a strong Allee effect, and the population extinct without any condition. The influence of Allee effects on the existence and persistence of positive steady states as well as global bifurcation diagrams is presented. The method of sub-super solutions is used for analyzing equations. The stability conditions and the region of positive solutions (multiple solutions may exist) are presented. When the diffusion is absent, we consider the model with and without harvesting, which are initial value problems (IVPs) and study the local stability analysis and present bifurcation analysis. We present a number of numerical examples to verify analytical results.

scholarly journals Bifurcation Analysis in a Diffusive Mussel-Algae Model with Delay

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 1950144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuolin Shen ◽  
Junjie Wei
Keyword(s):  
Hopf Bifurcation ◽  
Functional Differential Equations ◽  
Neumann Boundary ◽  
Reaction Diffusion ◽  
Delayed Reaction ◽  
Center Manifold Reduction ◽  
Existence Of Positive Solutions ◽  
Boundary Equilibrium ◽  
Functional Differential ◽  
The Stability

In this paper, we consider the dynamics of a delayed reaction–diffusion mussel-algae system subject to Neumann boundary conditions. When the delay is zero, we show the existence of positive solutions and the global stability of the boundary equilibrium. When the delay is not zero, we obtain the stability of the positive constant steady state and the existence of Hopf bifurcation by analyzing the distribution of characteristic values. By using the theory of normal form and center manifold reduction for partial functional differential equations, we derive an algorithm that determines the direction of Hopf bifurcation and the stability of bifurcating periodic solutions. Finally, some numerical simulations are carried out to support our theoretical results.

scholarly journals Temporal Stability and Biodiversity of Two Complex Antilisterial Cheese-Ripening Microbial Consortia

2003 ◽  
Vol 69 (7) ◽  
pp. 4012-4018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel Maoz ◽  
Ralf Mayr ◽  
Siegfried Scherer
Keyword(s):  
Species Composition ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
Temporal Stability ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Microbial Consortia ◽  
Cheese Ripening ◽  
Safe Food ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Individual ◽  
First Time

ABSTRACT The temporal stability and diversity of bacterial species composition as well as the antilisterial potential of two different, complex, and undefined microbial consortia from red-smear soft cheeses were investigated. Samples were collected twice, at 6-month intervals, from each of two food producers, and a total of 400 bacterial isolates were identified by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and 16S ribosomal DNA sequence analysis. Coryneform bacteria represented the majority of the isolates, with certain species being predominant. In addition, Marinolactobacillus psychrotolerans, Halomonas venusta, Halomonas variabilis, Halomonas sp. (106 to 107 CFU per g of smear), and an unknown, gram-positive bacterium (107 to 108 CFU per g of smear) are described for the first time in such a consortium. The species composition of one consortium was quite stable over 6 months, but the other consortium revealed less diversity of coryneform species as well as less stability. While the first consortium had a stable, extraordinarily high antilisterial potential in situ, the antilisterial activity of the second consortium was lower and decreased with time. The cause for the antilisterial activity of the two consortia remained unknown but is not due to the secretion of soluble, inhibitory substances by the individual components of the consortium. Our data indicate that the stability over time and a potential antilisterial activity are individual characteristics of the ripening consortia which can be monitored and used for safe food production without artificial preservatives.

scholarly journals Life without Division: Physiology ofEscherichia coliFtsZ-Deprived Filaments

mBio ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicia Sánchez-Gorostiaga ◽  
Pilar Palacios ◽  
Rocío Martínez-Arteaga ◽  
Manuel Sánchez ◽  
Mercedes Casanova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solid Medium ◽  
Membrane Integrity ◽  
Test Tube ◽  
Antimicrobial Compounds ◽  
Liquid Form ◽  
Altered Expression ◽  
E Coli ◽  
Ftsz Ring ◽  
Altered Expression Pattern ◽  
The Stability

ABSTRACTWhen deprived of FtsZ,Escherichia colicells (VIP205) grown in liquid form long nonseptated filaments due to their inability to assemble an FtsZ ring and their failure to recruit subsequent divisome components. These filaments fail to produce colonies on solid medium, in which synthesis of FtsZ is induced, upon being diluted by a factor greater than 4. However, once the initial FtsZ levels are recovered in liquid culture, they resume division, and their plating efficiency returns to normal. The potential septation sites generated in the FtsZ-deprived filaments are not annihilated, and once sufficient FtsZ is accumulated, they all become active and divide to produce cells of normal length. FtsZ-deprived cells accumulate defects in their physiology, including an abnormally high number of unsegregated nucleoids that may result from the misplacement of FtsK. Their membrane integrity becomes compromised and the amount of membrane proteins, such as FtsK and ZipA, increases. FtsZ-deprived cells also show an altered expression pattern, namely, transcription of several genes responding to DNA damage increases, whereas transcription of some ribosomal or global transcriptional regulators decreases. We propose that the changes caused by the depletion of FtsZ, besides stopping division, weaken the cell, diminishing its resiliency to minor challenges, such as dilution stress.IMPORTANCEOur results suggest a role for FtsZ, in addition to its already known effect in the constriction ofE. coli, in protecting the nondividing cells against minor stress. This protection can even be exerted when an inactive FtsZ is produced, but it is lost when the protein is altogether absent. These results have implications in fields like synthetic biology or antimicrobial discovery. The construction of synthetic divisomes in the test tube may need to preserve unsuspected roles, such as this newly found FtsZ property, to guarantee the stability of artificial containers. Whereas the effects on viability caused by inhibiting the activity of FtsZ may be partly overcome by filamentation, the absence of FtsZ is not tolerated byE. coli, an observation that may help in the design of effective antimicrobial compounds.

scholarly journals Characterization of Cocycle Attractors for Nonautonomous Reaction–Diffusion Equations

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (08) ◽  
pp. 1650135 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. A. Cardoso ◽  
J. A. Langa ◽  
R. Obaya
Keyword(s):  
Chaotic Dynamics ◽  
Linear Part ◽  
Reaction Diffusion ◽  
Positive Cone ◽  
Reaction Diffusion Equations ◽  
Diffusion Equations ◽  
Minimal Set ◽  
Full Characterization ◽  
The Stability

In this paper, we describe in detail the global and cocycle attractors related to nonautonomous scalar differential equations with diffusion. In particular, we investigate reaction–diffusion equations with almost-periodic coefficients. The associated semiflows are strongly monotone which allow us to give a full characterization of the cocycle attractor. We prove that, when the upper Lyapunov exponent associated to the linear part of the equations is positive, the flow is persistent in the positive cone, and we study the stability and the set of continuity points of the section of each minimal set in the global attractor for the skew product semiflow. We illustrate our result with some nontrivial examples showing the richness of the dynamics on this attractor, which in some situations shows internal chaotic dynamics in the Li–Yorke sense. We also include the sublinear and concave cases in order to go further in the characterization of the attractors, including, for instance, a nonautonomous version of the Chafee–Infante equation. In this last case we can show exponentially forward attraction to the cocycle (pullback) attractors in the positive cone of solutions.

scholarly journals Intraspecific competition and coordination in the evolution of lateralization

2008 ◽  
Vol 364 (1519) ◽  
pp. 861-866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Ghirlanda ◽  
Elisa Frasnelli ◽  
Giorgio Vallortigara
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionarily Stable Strategy ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Neural Circuitry ◽  
Brain Lateralization ◽  
Stable Strategy ◽  
Cooperative Interactions ◽  
Strategic Factors ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Predator Interactions ◽  
Evolutionarily Stable

Recent studies have revealed a variety of left–right asymmetries among vertebrates and invertebrates. In many species, left- and right-lateralized individuals coexist, but in unequal numbers (‘population-level’ lateralization). It has been argued that brain lateralization increases individual efficiency (e.g. avoiding unnecessary duplication of neural circuitry and reducing interference between functions), thus counteracting the ecological disadvantages of lateral biases in behaviour (making individual behaviour more predictable to other organisms). However, individual efficiency does not require a definite proportion of left- and right-lateralized individuals. Thus, such arguments do not explain population-level lateralization. We have previously shown that, in the context of prey–predator interactions, population-level lateralization can arise as an evolutionarily stable strategy when individually asymmetrical organisms must coordinate their behaviour with that of other asymmetrical organisms. Here, we extend our model showing that populations consisting of left- and right-lateralized individuals in unequal numbers can be evolutionarily stable, based solely on strategic factors arising from the balance between antagonistic (competitive) and synergistic (cooperative) interactions.

Characterization of a designed synthetic autotrophic–heterotrophic consortia for fixing CO2 without light

RSC Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (81) ◽  
pp. 78161-78169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiajun Hu ◽  
Yiyun Xue ◽  
Jixiang Li ◽  
Lei Wang ◽  
Shiping Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Interactions ◽  
Microbial Consortia ◽  
Synthetic Microbial Consortia

CO2 fixation efficiency of the devised synthetic microbial consortia with both autotrophic–autotrophic and autotrophic–heterotrophic microbial interactions were higher than the sum of theoretical CO2 fixation efficiency of the microbial components.

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