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Crossing Over

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Unlike mitosis, meiosis aims for genetic diversity in its creation of haploid gametes. Dividing germ cells first begin this process in prophase I, where each chromosome—replicated in S phase—is now composed of two sister chromatids (identical copies) joined centrally.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 13, 2026

Monitoring Spatial Segregation in Surface Colonizing Microbial Populations

Monitoring Spatial Segregation in Surface Colonizing Microbial Populations

Published on: October 29, 2016

Local interactions and self-organized spatial patterns stabilize microbial cross-feeding against cheaters.

Simon Maccracken Stump^1,2, Evan Curtis Johnson^3,4, Christopher A Klausmeier^3,5,6

¹W. K. Kellogg Biological StationBehavior, Michigan State University, 3700 East Gull Lake Drive, Hickory Corners, MI 49060, USA sstump@email.arizona.edu.

Journal of the Royal Society, Interface

|March 23, 2018

Summary

Cooperative cross-feeding microbes can resist cheating through spatial resource segregation. Novel mechanisms show how these microbial communities can self-organize to prevent cheaters from accessing essential nutrients, ensuring stability.

Keywords:

cross-feeding multilevel selection neighbour uncertainty pattern formation stochastic spatial model syntrophy

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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2026

Monitoring Spatial Segregation in Surface Colonizing Microbial Populations

Monitoring Spatial Segregation in Surface Colonizing Microbial Populations

Published on: October 29, 2016

High Throughput Co-culture Assays for the Investigation of Microbial Interactions

High Throughput Co-culture Assays for the Investigation of Microbial Interactions

Published on: October 15, 2019

Cross-Modal Multivariate Pattern Analysis

Cross-Modal Multivariate Pattern Analysis

Published on: November 9, 2011

Area of Science:

Ecology
Microbiology
Systems Biology

Background:

Mutualisms are common but vulnerable to exploitation by "cheaters".
Cooperative cross-feeding, a nutrient-exchange mutualism, is proposed for stabilizing microbial consortia.
Previous models for robustness against cheaters involved complex behaviors or group selection.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate novel mechanisms for cross-feeders to outcompete cheaters.
To demonstrate how spatial dynamics can stabilize cooperative microbial communities.
To offer strategies for engineering stable synthetic microbial consortia.

Main Methods:

Utilized a stochastic spatial model to simulate microbe-cheater interactions.
Analyzed scenarios with varying microbe dispersal rates and resource sharing patterns.
Focused on mechanisms driven by spatial resource segregation.

Main Results:

Two mechanisms were identified where cross-feeders outcompete cheaters via spatial resource separation.
Low dispersal and wide resource sharing led to self-organized stable spatial patterns.
High dispersal and local resource sharing resulted in chance-based resource segregation.

Conclusions:

Spatial segregation of resources is a key factor in the robustness of cross-feeding mutualisms.
Cross-feeding can be more stable than previously thought, even without complex anti-cheater strategies.
Findings provide insights for designing stable synthetic microbial ecosystems.