Fitness and Productivity Increase with Ecotypic Diversity among Escherichia coli Strains That Coevolved in a Simple, Constant Environment

• Dong-Dong Yang ^[1] ; Ashley Alexander ^[1] ; Margie Kinnersley ^[1] ; Emily Cook ^[2] ; Amy Caudy ^[3] ; Adam Rosebrock ^[3] ; Frank Rosenzweig ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Montana

     University of Montana

     Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] Georgia Institute of Technology

     Georgia Institute of Technology

     Estados Unidos

     
  3. [3] University of Toronto

     University of Toronto

     Canadá

     

  Mostrar afiliaciones +
• Localización: Applied and Environmental Microbiology, ISSN 0099-2240, Vol. 86, Nº 8, 2020
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • Polymicrobial consortia occur in both environmental and clinical settings. In many cases, diversity and productivity correlate in these consortia, especially when sustained by positive, density-dependent interactions. However, the evolutionary history of such entities is typically obscure, making it difficult to establish the relative fitness of consortium partners and to use those data to illuminate the diversity-productivity relationship. Here, we dissect an Escherichia coli consortium that evolved under continuous glucose limitation in the laboratory from a single common ancestor. We show that a partnership consisting of cross-feeding ecotypes is better able to secure primary and secondary resources and to convert those resources to offspring than the ancestral clone. Such interactions may be a prelude to a special form of syntrophy and are likely determinants of microbial community structure in nature, including those having clinical significance such as chronic infections.