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Costless metabolic secretions as drivers of interspecies interactions in microbial ecosystems

Author

Listed:
  • Alan R. Pacheco

    (Boston University)

  • Mauricio Moel

    (Boston University)

  • Daniel Segrè

    (Boston University
    Boston University
    Boston University
    Boston University)

Abstract

Metabolic exchange mediates interactions among microbes, helping explain diversity in microbial communities. As these interactions often involve a fitness cost, it is unclear how stable cooperation can emerge. Here we use genome-scale metabolic models to investigate whether the release of “costless” metabolites (i.e. those that cause no fitness cost to the producer), can be a prominent driver of intermicrobial interactions. By performing over 2 million pairwise growth simulations of 24 species in a combinatorial assortment of environments, we identify a large space of metabolites that can be secreted without cost, thus generating ample cross-feeding opportunities. In addition to providing an atlas of putative interactions, we show that anoxic conditions can promote mutualisms by providing more opportunities for exchange of costless metabolites, resulting in an overrepresentation of stable ecological network motifs. These results may help identify interaction patterns in natural communities and inform the design of synthetic microbial consortia.

Suggested Citation

  • Alan R. Pacheco & Mauricio Moel & Daniel Segrè, 2019. "Costless metabolic secretions as drivers of interspecies interactions in microbial ecosystems," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-07946-9
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07946-9
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    Cited by:

    1. Na Chen & Na Du & Ruichen Shen & Tianpei He & Jing Xi & Jie Tan & Guangkai Bian & Yanbing Yang & Tiangang Liu & Weihong Tan & Lilei Yu & Quan Yuan, 2023. "Redox signaling-driven modulation of microbial biosynthesis and biocatalysis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Lucas Hemmerle & Benjamin A. Maier & Miriam Bortfeld-Miller & Birgitta Ryback & Christoph G. Gäbelein & Martin Ackermann & Julia A. Vorholt, 2022. "Dynamic character displacement among a pair of bacterial phyllosphere commensals in situ," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Robert Marsland & Wenping Cui & Joshua Goldford & Pankaj Mehta, 2020. "The Community Simulator: A Python package for microbial ecology," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-18, March.
    4. Chris Girard, 2020. "Globalization and the erosion of geo-ethnic checkpoints: evolving signal-boundary systems at the edge of chaos," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 93-109, January.

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