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Evolution of Cross‐Feeding in Microbial Populations
Abstract
Although limited by a single resource, microbial populations that grow for long periods in continuous culture (chemostat) frequently evolve stable polymorphisms. These polymorphisms may be maintained by cross-feeding, where one strain partially degrades the primary energy resource and excretes an intermediate that is used as an energy resource by a second strain. It is unclear what selective advantage cross-feeding strains have over a single competitor that completely degrades the primary resource. Here we show that cross-feeding may evolve in microbial populations as a consequence of the following optimization principles: the rate of ATP production is maximized, the concentration of enzymes of the pathway is minimized, and the concentration of intermediates of the pathway is minimized.
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Cited by
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Daims, H., Lebedeva, E. V., Pjevac, P., Han, P., Herbold, C., Albertsen, M., Jehmlich, N., Palatinszky, M., Vierheilig, J., Bulaev, A., et al. (2015) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature16461 · Cited by 2,741
Shifts in growth strategies reflect tradeoffs in cellular economics
Molenaar, D., van Berlo, R., de Ridder, D., & Teusink, B. (2009) · Molecular Systems Biology · doi:10.1038/msb.2009.82 · Cited by 653
Why is metabolic labour divided in nitrification?
Costa, E., Pérez, J., & Kreft, J.-U. (2006) · Trends in Microbiology · doi:10.1016/j.tim.2006.03.006 · Cited by 489
An evolutionary perspective on the Crabtree effect
Pfeiffer, T., & Morley, A. (2014) · Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences · doi:10.3389/fmolb.2014.00017 · Cited by 318
Self-citationThe generation and maintenance of diversity in microbial communities
Fierer, N., & Lennon, J. T. (2011) · American Journal of Botany · doi:10.3732/ajb.1000498 · Cited by 288
Metadata
- Authors
- Pfeiffer, T., & Bonhoeffer, S.
- Venue
- The American Naturalist
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 2004-06
- Volume
- 163
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- E126-E135
- ISSN
- 0003-0147 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5323
- OpenAlex
- W1967190757
- Cited by
- 194
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 1.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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