Article
Ecology
Rinke J. van Tatenhove-Pel, Daan H. de Groot, Anjani S. Bisseswar, Bas Teusink, Herwig Bachmann
Summary: The study reveals the evolution of costly cooperation between microorganisms through spatial structure and exchange of molecules. Experimental results show that cooperators outcompete cheaters when the growth of cheaters depends completely on cooperators, but cheaters outcompete cooperators when they can independently grow to only ten percent of the consortium carrying capacity.
Review
Microbiology
Elizabeth J. Culp, Andrew L. Goodman
Summary: Microbial communities are influenced by both positive and negative interactions, including competition and mutualism. In the mammalian gut, these interactions have significant impacts on host health. Cross-feeding, a cooperative interaction where metabolites are shared between different microbes, plays a crucial role in establishing stable, resistant, and resilient gut communities. This review explores the ecological and evolutionary implications of cross-feeding, as well as mechanisms and impacts of cross-feeding at different trophic levels.
CELL HOST & MICROBE
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Stephen Wandro, Pooja Ghatbale, Hedieh Attai, Clark Hendrickson, Cyril Samillano, Joy Suh, Sage J. B. Dunham, David T. Pride, Katrine Whiteson
Summary: This study isolated and developed a collection of Enterococcus phages that can infect both E faecalis and E. faecium. It was found that combining phages into cocktails often prevented the growth of phage-resistant mutants. Genomic characterization showed consistent mutations in exopolysaccharide synthesis genes when resistant mutants emerged. These findings inform efforts to improve efficacy against Enterococcus isolates and reduce the emergence of resistance.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Gabriele Micali, Alyson M. Hockenberry, Alma Dal Co, Martin Ackermann, Dianne Newman
Summary: Microbial communities are essential for life on Earth, but their metabolic dependencies can be detrimental when external conditions change rapidly. We found that the spatial arrangement of a microbial community plays a crucial role in maintaining metabolic interactions and growth after an environmental shift.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Samir Giri, Leonardo Ona, Silvio Waschina, Shraddha Shitut, Ghada Yousif, Christoph Kaleta, Christian Kost
Summary: The study reveals that metabolic dissimilarity between bacterial genotypes is a key factor determining the establishment of metabolic cross-feeding interactions in microbial communities. Results showed that a greater phylogenetic distance and metabolic network dissimilarity between donor and recipient were associated with better growth of auxotrophic recipients, indicating that interacting with metabolically dissimilar partners benefits recipient genotypes.
Article
Biology
Angela M. Phillips, Katherine R. Lawrence, Alief Moulana, Thomas Dupic, Jeffrey Chang, Milo S. Johnson, Ivana Cvijovic, Thierry Mora, Aleksandra M. Walczak, Michael M. Desai
Summary: Research has shown that two naturally isolated influenza broadly neutralizing antibodies (CR9114 and CR6261) exhibit different patterns of affinity, with CR9114 displaying significant constraints in affinity for different antigens and showing higher affinity in specific combinations, while CR6261 is less restricted in breadth to more similar antigens.
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Michael Orsted, Erika Yashiro, Ary A. Hoffmann, Torsten Nygaard Kristensen
Summary: It is increasingly clear that microbial symbionts have a significant impact on the health and adaptability of their hosts, and vice versa. This study explores how reductions in population size can affect microbiome diversity and the fitness of the host. The findings suggest that population bottlenecks not only lead to a loss of genetic variation, but also result in a constriction of microbiome richness and diversity, which in turn influences the overall fitness of the host in stressful environments.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
G. Boza, G. Barabas, I. Scheuring, I. Zachar
Summary: Syntrophic cooperation among prokaryotes is common, but there are few examples of it leading to endosymbiosis. The presence of selfish mutants may undermine mutualistic interactions when externalized products become public goods. To evaluate these arguments, researchers constructed a mathematical model of different types of syntrophic partnerships in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic contexts. They found that cooperative partnerships eventually dominate over selfish mutants, but systems where producers actively secrete enzymes that facilitate partners' resource consumption are not robust against cheaters. The study concludes that cross-feeding mutualisms may have played a role in the origin of endosymbiosis.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jessika Consuegra, Joel Gaffe, Richard E. Lenski, Thomas Hindre, Jeffrey E. Barrick, Olivier Tenaillon, Dominique Schneider
Summary: The study shows that IS elements play an important role in bacterial genomic evolution and adaptation, with mutations they cause being either beneficial or harmful. IS-mediated mutations can promote adaptive evolution, but excessive IS activity over time may limit evolutionary possibilities.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Robert D. Hawkins, Megumi Sano, Noah D. Goodman, Judith E. Fan
Summary: This article examines the variation in the abstraction of drawings and how they convey meaningful information. The study demonstrates that visual and social information work together to support visual communication. Participants in the study developed more efficient strategies over time and the drawings preserved visually diagnostic features.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Emily E. Bendall, Amy P. Callear, Amy Getz, Kendra Goforth, Drew Edwards, Arnold S. Monto, Emily T. Martin, Adam S. Lauring
Summary: Transmission bottlenecks limit the spread of novel mutations and reduce the efficiency of selection along a transmission chain. The transmission bottlenecks of non-VOC SARS-CoV-2 lineages and Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants are similar, indicating that these tight bottlenecks will limit the spread of new mutations.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Anzhelika Koldaeva, Hsieh-Fu Tsai, Amy Q. Shen, Simone Pigolotti
Summary: This study investigates the population genetics of Escherichia coli proliferating in microchannels, revealing that diversity is rapidly lost within channels but much slower among them. Competitive E. coli strains must organize into an ordered stripe pattern in a few generations. Random mutations in the middle of the channel are more likely to become fixed, illustrating fundamental mechanisms of microbial evolution in spatially confined environments.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Yiqun Zhou, Hao Zheng, Dandan Gao, Jie Zhao
Summary: The population dynamics and feeding preferences of three bacterial-feeding nematodes were evaluated in this study. Different nematode species indeed have distinct feeding preferences. This highlights the deficiencies in the understanding of the feeding behavior and life-history strategies of soil nematodes.
Article
Ecology
Johannes Cairns, Alexandre Jousset, Lutz Becks, Teppo Hiltunen
Summary: Mutation supply can influence evolutionary and ecological dynamics by affecting population size and species interactions, particularly when population size is constrained by external conditions. Controlled experiments show that higher mutation supply enables faster adaptation to low-resource environments and anti-predatory defense mechanisms, leading to increased population size and better access to high-recurrence mutational targets.
Editorial Material
Microbiology
Nandita Garud
Summary: Microbes can evolve rapidly to adapt to selection pressures, but our understanding of the adaptation in microbiomes is still incomplete. Advances in modeling complex populations and scenarios will help us better understand adaptation in microbiomes and other natural populations experiencing similar complexities.