Competition for space during bacterial colonization of a surface

Journal of the Royal Society, Interface
Diarmuid P Lloyd, Rosalind J Allen

Abstract

Competition for space is ubiquitous in the ecology of both microorganisms and macro-organisms. We introduce a bacterial model system in which the factors influencing competition for space during colonization of an initially empty habitat can be tracked directly. Using fluorescence microscopy, we follow the fate of individual Escherichia coli bacterial cell lineages as they undergo expansion competition (the race to be the first to colonize a previously empty territory), and as they later compete at boundaries between clonal territories. Our experiments are complemented by computer simulations of a lattice-based model. We find that both expansion competition, manifested as differences in individual cell lag times, and boundary competition, manifested as effects of neighbour cell geometry, can play a role in colonization success, particularly when lineages expand exponentially. This work provides a baseline for investigating how ecological interactions affect colonization of space by bacterial populations, and highlights the potential of bacterial model systems for the testing and development of ecological theory.

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Citations

Aug 24, 2016·Frontiers in Microbiology·Reed M StubbendieckPaul D Straight
Aug 23, 2016·Trends in Microbiology·Melanie Ghoul, Sara Mitri
Jan 26, 2018·The ISME Journal·Jeremy M ChacónWilliam R Harcombe
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Oct 3, 2018·Reports on Progress in Physics·Rosalind J Allen, Bartlomiej Waclaw
Jan 22, 2019·Physical Biology·Xiaokan GuoJames Q Boedicker
Jul 7, 2017·Royal Society Open Science·Julian SheatsKevin D Dorfman
Jul 21, 2020·PloS One·Rebecca BrouwersRosalind J Allen
Aug 6, 2016·Physical Review Letters·Amin DoostmohammadiJulia M Yeomans
May 12, 2020·Frontiers in Neurology·Samad A RazaThomas J Oxley
May 22, 2019·Physical Review. E·Takuro Shimaya, Kazumasa A Takeuchi
Nov 15, 2017·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Shuang Xu, J David Van Dyken
Mar 24, 2020·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Davide CiccareseDavid R Johnson
Aug 18, 2020·Applied and Environmental Microbiology·Zhong YuFangang Meng

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
fluorescence microscopy
MDS

Software Mentioned

I J
MetaMorph
MATLAB
CellCounter
PERMANOVA
P rimer

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