Paper: Evolution of species interactions in a biofilm community

Nature 445, 533-536 (1 February 2007) | doi:10.1038/nature05514; Received 13
September 2006; Accepted 8 December 2006

Evolution of species interactions in a biofilm community
Susse Kirkelund Hansen, Paul B. Rainey, Janus A. J. Haagensen and Søren
Molin

Biofilms are spatially structured communities of microbes whose function is
dependent on a complex web of symbiotic interactions. Localized interactions
within these assemblages are predicted to affect the coexistence of the
component species, community structure and function, but there have been few
explicit empirical analyses of the evolution of interactions. Here we show,
with the use of a two-species community, that selection in a spatially
structured environment leads to the evolution of an exploitative
interaction. Simple mutations in the genome of one species caused it to
adapt to the presence of the other, forming an intimate and specialized
association. The derived community was more stable and more productive than
the ancestral community. Our results show that evolution in a spatially
structured environment can stabilize interactions between species, provoke
marked changes in their symbiotic nature and affect community function.

Source: Nature
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v445/n7127/abs/nature05514.html

In it together

(Editor's Summary of the above paper)

Biofilms are specialized environments where communities of microorganisms
are insulated from the outside world by an extracellular polymer matrix that
they themselves secrete. The resulting microbial mats have been compared to
tropical rainforests in terms of complexity and biodiversity. Selective
pressures on such biofilms are likely to demand intense interactions between
the individual bacteria, and an experiment with a simple community of two
species (soil dwellers Pseudomonas putida and Acinetobacter sp.) shows just
how close that relationship is. The physical structure of the community
altered, to the mutual benefit of both species, as a result of a simple
mutation in the genome of one of the species. In the absence of a partner
the mutation (in P. putida) would have been deleterious. This system
demonstrates the importance of interspecies interactions, and may be useful
in work on the evolution of these interactions.

Source: Nature
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v445/n7127/edsumm/e070201-12.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek


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