Article
Ecology
Shyamolina Ghosh, Daniel C. Reuman, James D. Bever
Summary: This study explores the co-occurrence of functionally variable symbionts within individual plant roots. The researchers find that the host's preferential allocation of resources and the costs of mutualism result in resource specialization, allowing for the coexistence of beneficial and non-beneficial symbionts. Biologically realistic models predict that the coexistence of symbionts should be common in root symbioses, with the density of mutualists increasing in proportion to the needs of the host.
AMERICAN NATURALIST
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
K. C. Jander
Summary: The study shows that there are fitness costs for fig wasps that do not pollinate, mainly due to abortions of unpollinated figs and reduced development of wasp larvae to adults. The relative fitness of non-pollinating wasps compared to pollinating wasps is 0.59, leading to an intermediate sanction strength of 0.41. In addition, fig species with stronger host sanctions had fewer uncooperative wasps among their pollinators, suggesting that sanctions promote cooperation.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Arafat Rahman, Max Manci, Cassandra Nadon, Ivan A. Perez, Warisha F. Farsamin, Matthew T. Lampe, Tram H. Le, Lorena Torres Martinez, Alexandra J. Weisberg, Jeff H. Chang, Joel L. Sachs
Summary: The capacity of beneficial microbes to compete for host infection and the ability of hosts to discriminate among them introduce evolutionary conflict that may destabilize mutualism. This study investigates the fitness outcomes in associations between legumes and their symbiotic rhizobia, and finds that microbial competition has an impact on fitness. The findings suggest that inter-strain competition favors fast-growing, minimally beneficial rhizobia strains, and that competition traits are polygenic and linked with inter-strain allelopathic interactions in the rhizosphere.
Article
Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Applications
Lin Wang, Rui-Wu Wang
Summary: Research using mathematical models and field data has discovered chaotic behavior in mutualistic systems, suggesting that host regulation and environmental variation together can lead to population chaos.
CHAOS SOLITONS & FRACTALS
(2022)
Article
Physics, Fluids & Plasmas
Marcelo A. Pires, Andre L. Oestereich, Nuno Crokidakis, Silvio M. Duarte Queiros
Summary: The study found that on complex networks, the multicoupled dynamics of vaccination campaigns exhibit phenomena such as bistability and nonequilibrium transitions. An intermediate optimal segregation level in the community structure enhances negative opinions on vaccines but counterintuitively hinders global disease spreading.
Article
Biology
Andrei Papkou, Rebecca Schalkowski, Mike-Christoph Barg, Svenja Koepper, Hinrich Schulenburg
Summary: Our study found that host adaptation was constrained in small populations and to a lesser extent in bottlenecked populations. As a result, coevolution in large and small populations gave rise to different selection dynamics and produced different patterns of host-pathogen genotype-by-genotype interactions. Our results demonstrate a major influence of host population size on the ability of the antagonists to co-adapt to each other, thereby shaping the dynamics of antagonistic coevolution.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Mathematical & Computational Biology
Beryl Musundi
Summary: In this study, an immuno-epidemiological model is proposed to link the within-host and between-host dynamics of cholera. By analyzing infected individuals at different time scales, better insights into the spread and control of the disease can be gained. The model captures the interaction between the cholera pathogen and the adaptive immune response.
MATHEMATICAL BIOSCIENCES AND ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Marjolein Bruijning, Lucas P. Henry, Simon K. G. Forsberg, C. Jessica E. Metcalf, Julien F. Ayroles
Summary: Vertical transmission affects host-microbe interactions, but is influenced by the environment; the genetic repertoire of the microbiome shapes host phenotypes and fitness; imperfect vertical transmission can alter microbiome variation, impacting host adaptation.
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Nuno C. Martins, Jair Certorio, Richard J. La
Summary: We propose a system theoretic approach to select and stabilize the endemic equilibrium of an SIRS epidemic model, with the decisions of a population determining the transmission rate. The population's agents revise their choices out of a set of strategies that impact the transmission rate. We develop a dynamic payoff mechanism that guarantees steering the epidemic variables to the endemic equilibrium with the smallest infectious fraction, subject to cost constraints.
Article
Microbiology
Patricia E. Sorensen, Duncan Y. K. Ng, Luc Duchateau, Hanne Ingmer, An Garmyn, Patrick Butaye
Summary: This study investigated the impact of bacteriophages on bacterial growth dynamics and identified seven distinct growth patterns, with phage species being the most influential factor. The results highlighted the importance of phage-host dynamics in determining a phage's ability to eliminate bacteria, and suggested that phage therapy development should take into consideration these dynamics. Candidates from Group 2, characterized by high bacterial killing, were identified as the most promising for phage therapy.
Review
Ecology
Kayla R. S. Hale, Fernanda S. Valdovinos
Summary: The population dynamics of mutualisms tend to exhibit stable coexistence at high density and destabilizing thresholds at low density, regardless of the level of detail, types of benefits, and inspiring systems. These dynamics are caused by saturating benefits of mutualism, whether due to intrinsic or extrinsic density dependence factors, such as Allee effects. Overall, there exists a robust population dynamic theory of mutualism that can make general predictions.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Abhyudai Singh
Summary: Traditionally, population dynamics of host-parasitoid interactions have been studied with a focus on the Nicholson-Bailey model. Different levels of heterogeneity in parasitism risk among individual hosts have been shown to stabilize the equilibrium. Stochastic models and alternative mechanisms, such as a Type III functional response, have been explored to understand the fluctuations and correlations in population densities of hosts and parasitoids.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Remo Ryser, Myriam R. Hirt, Johanna Haussler, Dominique Gravel, Ulrich Brose
Summary: Habitat fragmentation and eutrophication have strong impacts on biodiversity, and their cumulative effects are not well understood. Simulations of meta-food-webs show that landscape heterogeneity promotes biodiversity through the interaction of rescue and drainage effects.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Himel Mallick, Ali Rahnavard, Lauren J. McIver, Siyuan Ma, Yancong Zhang, Long H. Nguyen, Timothy L. Tickle, George Weingart, Boyu Ren, Emma H. Schwager, Suvo Chatterjee, Kelsey N. Thompson, Jeremy E. Wilkinson, Ayshwarya Subramanian, Yiren Lu, Levi Waldron, Joseph N. Paulson, Eric A. Franzosa, Hector Corrada Bravo, Curtis Huttenhower
Summary: The paper introduces a statistical model called MaAsLin 2 for multivariable associations in population-scale microbial community studies, which has been extensively validated. The authors highlight the importance and challenges of multivariable association analysis in microbiome research, and propose a new method to handle such complex data.
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Immunology
Annika Hausmann, Wolf-Dietrich Hardt
Summary: Host-microbe interactions are highly dynamic during infections, and utilizing genetic tags with stochastic population dynamic models allows for more precise quantification of these interactions. This approach can help predict the effects of immunodeficiencies or therapies on populations, generating new experimental hypotheses.