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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Microbiology

Background:

  • Positive species interactions are fundamental to ecosystem function.
  • Understanding the stability of these interactions under varying environmental conditions is crucial.
  • Evolutionary timescales and environmental fluctuations, including competition, impact interaction stability.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the stability of a two-species microbial interaction over 200 generations.
  • To compare the effects of constant versus fluctuating environments on species coexistence.
  • To determine the role of rapid evolution and genetic adaptation in interaction stability.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a two-species microbial system with nutrient-modulated interactions.
  • Evolved replicate populations in parallel in constant and fluctuating (commensalism-competition) environments.
  • Sequenced full genomes of isolated clones at various time points to identify genetic adaptations.

Main Results:

  • Species stably coexisted in the constant commensal environment.
  • In the fluctuating environment, species extinction occurred in 50% of replicates.
  • Extinction events were deterministic and reproducible, driven by adaptive mutations in specific genes.

Conclusions:

  • Long-term stability of positive pairwise interactions is compromised in fluctuating environments.
  • Rapid evolution, driven by specific genetic adaptations, can destabilize ecological communities.
  • Environmental instability poses a significant challenge to the persistence of mutually beneficial species interactions.