Coyte, K.Z., Tabuteau, H., Gaffney, E.A. et al. (2 more authors) (2017) Microbial competition in porous environments can select against rapid biofilm growth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114 (2). E161-E170. ISSN 0027-8424
Abstract
Microbes often live in dense communities called biofilms where competition between strains and species is fundamental to both evolution and community function. While biofilms are commonly found in soil-like porous environments, the study of microbial interactions has largely focused on biofilms growing on flat, planar surfaces. Here we use novel microfluidic experiments, mechanistic models, and game theory to study how porous media hydrodynamics can mediate competition between bacterial genotypes. Our experiments reveal a fundamental challenge faced by microbial strains that live in porous environments: cells that rapidly form biofilms tend to block their access to fluid flow and redirect resources to competitors. To understand how these dynamics influence the evolution of bacterial growth rates we couple a model of flow-biofilm interaction with a game theory analysis. This shows that hydrodynamic interactions between competing genotypes give rise to an evolutionarily stable growth rate that stands in stark contrast with that observed in typical laboratory experiments: cells within a biofilm can outcompete other genotypes by growing more slowly. Our work reveals that hydrodynamics can profoundly affect how bacteria compete and evolve in porous environments, the habitat where most bacteria live.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 National Academy of Sciences. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in PNAS. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | bacterial evolution; porous media flow; game theory; adaptive dynamics |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Physics and Astronomy (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 18 Nov 2016 12:32 |
Last Modified: | 18 Apr 2017 14:28 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1525228113 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | National Academy of Sciences |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1073/pnas.1525228113 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:107536 |