A passive mutualistic interaction promotes the evolution of spatial structure within microbial populations

BMC Evolutionary Biology

Research Article

Sven Panke¹  David R. Johnson²  Marie Marchal²  Selina N. Derksen-Müller³  Martin Ackermann³  Felix Goldschmidt³ 

[1] Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zürich, 4058, Basel, Switzerland;Department of Environmental Microbiology, Eawag, Überlandstrasse 133, 8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland;Department of Environmental Microbiology, Eawag, Überlandstrasse 133, 8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland;Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland;

关键词: Mutualism;    Cross-feeding;    Cell aggregation;    Experimental evolution;    Microbial populations;    Spatial structure;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12862-017-0950-y

 received in 2016-10-07, accepted in 2017-04-04,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundWhile mutualistic interactions between different genotypes are pervasive in nature, their evolutionary origin is not clear. The dilemma is that, for mutualistic interactions to emerge and persist, an investment into the partner genotype must pay off: individuals of a first genotype that invest resources to promote the growth of a second genotype must receive a benefit that is not equally accessible to individuals that do not invest. One way for exclusive benefits to emerge is through spatial structure (i.e., physical barriers to the movement of individuals and resources).ResultsHere we propose that organisms can evolve their own spatial structure based on physical attachment between individuals, and we hypothesize that attachment evolves when spatial proximity to members of another species is advantageous. We tested this hypothesis using experimental evolution with combinations of E. coli strains that depend on each other to grow. We found that attachment between cells repeatedly evolved within 8 weeks of evolution and observed that many different types of mutations potentially contributed to increased attachment.ConclusionsWe postulate a general principle by which passive beneficial interactions between organisms select for attachment, and attachment then provides spatial structure that could be conducive for the evolution of active mutualistic interactions.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017