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- Title
Cooperative microbial interactions drive spatial segregation in porous environments.
- Authors
Wu, Yichao; Fu, Chengxia; Peacock, Caroline L.; Sørensen, Søren J.; Redmile-Gordon, Marc A.; Xiao, Ke-Qing; Gao, Chunhui; Liu, Jun; Huang, Qiaoyun; Li, Zixue; Song, Peiyi; Zhu, Yongguan; Zhou, Jizhong; Cai, Peng
- Abstract
The role of microbial interactions and the underlying mechanisms that shape complex biofilm communities are poorly understood. Here we employ a microfluidic chip to represent porous subsurface environments and show that cooperative microbial interactions between free-living and biofilm-forming bacteria trigger active spatial segregation to promote their respective dominance in segregated microhabitats. During initial colonization, free-living and biofilm-forming microbes are segregated from the mixed planktonic inoculum to occupy the ambient fluid and grain surface. Contrary to spatial exclusion through competition, the active spatial segregation is induced by cooperative interactions which improves the fitness of both biofilm and planktonic populations. We further show that free-living Arthrobacter induces the surface colonization by scavenging the biofilm inhibitor, D-amino acids and receives benefits from the public goods secreted by the biofilm-forming strains. Collectively, our results reveal how cooperative microbial interactions may contribute to microbial coexistence in segregated microhabitats and drive subsurface biofilm community succession. Cooperative interactions might be important in spatially structured microbial habitats. Here, the authors show that cooperative interactions between planktonic and biofilm-forming bacteria drive spatial segregation, and thereby enable species' coexistence, in a microfluidic chip environment.
- Subjects
PUBLIC goods; HABITAT partitioning (Ecology); COEXISTENCE of species; ARTHROBACTER; ECOLOGICAL niche; BIOFILMS
- Publication
Nature Communications, 2023, Vol 14, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2041-1723
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s41467-023-39991-4