Hypersensitivity of chitin degradation to initial species densities due to monomer diffusion

Resource competition strongly shapes microbial community dynamics and functionality. In polysaccharide-degrading communities, primary degraders release hydrolytic enzymes, whereas exploiters consume released products without producing enzyme themselves. We investigate the competitive strategies employed by marine chitin degraders and N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) exploiters, revealing various mechanisms that impact community viability and growth dynamics. In addition to direct competition strategies such as antibiotic secretion or cell aggregation on chitin particles (which helps monopolize enzyme access), exploiters also inhibit degraders by diverting limiting GlcNAc flux during the early stages of particle degradation. This critical phase requires degraders to overcome the diffusive loss of GlcNAc to sustain their chitinase production. Through quantitative measurements and modeling, we demonstrate that nutrient competition among species and nutrient loss through diffusion during the initial stages of community dynamics strongly influence the long-term success of the community. The initial community composition dictates the former mechanisms, while the latter is closely related to particle size, both of which have profound implications for environmental carbon cycling. The resulting hypersensitivity of the community is analogous to the Allee effect observed in population biology, where the outcomes-in our case polymer degradation-are heavily dependent on starting conditions. This study sheds light on how metabolic competition in the early phases of particle degradation governs species interactions, resource partitioning, and overall community viability, even under identical environmental and genetic conditions.