Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 4, 2025
07:40
Monitoring Spatial Segregation in Surface Colonizing Microbial Populations
Published on: October 29, 2016
11.2K
Top-down and bottom-up cohesiveness in microbial community coalescence
Juan Diaz-Colunga1,2, Nanxi Lu1,2, Alicia Sanchez-Gorostiaga1,2,3
1Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511.
Summary
Microbial communities can invade as a whole, a process called community coalescence. This study reveals that collective metabolic interactions, or ecological coselection, drive these invasions, impacting microbial community assembly and stability.
Area of Science:
- Microbial Ecology
- Systems Biology
- Synthetic Biology
Background:
- Microbial communities often invade and merge, termed community coalescence, impacting microbial consortia assembly and stability.
- The mechanisms governing community coalescence and its ecological consequences remain poorly understood.
- Theoretical frameworks suggest collective metabolic interactions can create community cohesiveness, leading to ecological coselection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the processes governing microbial community coalescence.
- To test the hypothesis of ecological coselection driven by collective metabolic interactions.
- To explore the role of cross-feeding networks in modulating community cohesiveness.
Main Methods:
- Conducted over 100 invasion and coalescence experiments using microbial communities from diverse origins in two synthetic environments.
- Employed a consumer-resource model to analyze the influence of cross-feeding networks on community dynamics.
- Experimentally validated model predictions regarding the interplay of top-down and bottom-up coselection.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated both top-down (dominant taxa recruiting rare partners) and bottom-up (rare taxa recruiting dominant partners) coselection during community coalescence.
- Identified that the structure of cross-feeding networks significantly modulates the emergence of top-down and bottom-up cohesiveness.
- Confirmed that top-down and bottom-up ecological coselection are inversely related and cannot occur simultaneously under the studied conditions.
Conclusions:
- Collective invasions of microbial communities result in ecological coselection, driven by community-level cross-feeding interactions.
- The structure of metabolic networks dictates the type and strength of coselection observed during community coalescence.
- Findings provide direct evidence for ecological coselection as a fundamental process in microbial community assembly and stability.
Related Concept Videos
01:29Microbial Morphologies
1.1K
Bacterial and archaeal cells exhibit remarkable diversity in shape and structure, critical in their adaptability and functionality. Among bacteria, the most commonly observed shapes include cocci and bacilli. Cocci are spherical and may exist singly or in groupings such as pairs (diplococci), chains (streptococci), clusters (staphylococci), or tetrads. Bacilli, in contrast, are rod-shaped and can also occur as single cells, in pairs, or chains, depending on their environmental and genetic...
1.1K
01:28Gene Regulation in Microbial Communities: Quorum Sensing
117
Quorum sensing is a mechanism of bacterial communication that enables coordinated gene expression in response to changes in population density. This facilitates collective behaviors that enhance survival, resource acquisition, and ecological adaptation. This process relies on small signaling molecules called autoinducers that accumulate as bacterial populations grow. When a critical threshold concentration of autoinducers is reached, bacterial cells collectively modify gene expression,...
117
01:07Cohesion
56.3K
Cohesion is the attraction between molecules of the same type, such as water molecules. Water molecules have an overall neutral charge but are polar molecule. An oxygen atom in one water molecule has a partial negative charge that can bind to a hydrogen atom with a partial positive charge in a second water molecule, forming a hydrogen bond. Each water molecule can form up to four hydrogen bonds with other water molecules. Hydrogen bonds are responsible for water's cohesive nature.
On a...
On a...
56.3K
02:20Cohesins
4.8K
Cohesin protein complexes are a molecular glue that holds two sister chromatids together. They play an important role both in mitosis and meiosis. In mitosis, all cohesin complexes present on the chromosomes are removed before the start of the anaphase stage.
Cohesin complexes in Meiotic Division
Meiosis involves two distinct rounds of chromosomal segregation and cell divisions— Meiosis I followed by Meiosis II – producing four daughter cells. Meiosis I includes the separation of...
Cohesin complexes in Meiotic Division
Meiosis involves two distinct rounds of chromosomal segregation and cell divisions— Meiosis I followed by Meiosis II – producing four daughter cells. Meiosis I includes the separation of...
4.8K
00:59Mechanisms of Membrane Domain Formation
3.3K
Different physical properties of lipids and proteins allow them to localize and form distinct islands or domains in the membrane. Some membrane domains are formed due to protein-protein interactions, whereas others are formed due to the presence of specific lipids such as sphingolipids and sterols—for example, large proteins, such as bacteriorhodopsin, aggregate and create distinct domains.
Another mechanism for membrane domain formation involves membrane proteins interacting with...
Another mechanism for membrane domain formation involves membrane proteins interacting with...
3.3K