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Growth rate modulation enables coexistence in a competitive exclusion scenario between microbial eukaryotes

Growth rate modulation enables coexistence in a competitive exclusion scenario between microbial eukaryotes
Growth rate modulation enables coexistence in a competitive exclusion scenario between microbial eukaryotes
Coexistence usually are exceeding the explicable rate by competitive exclusion principle. Since the pioneer Gause, many studies have used protist microcosm systems to study competitive exclusion. We explored a two-species system with the testate-amoebae: (Arcella intermedia and Pyxidicula operculata), where competitive exclusion is expected to occur. We determined their growth curves individually and under competitive interaction. We used a state-space model to represent system dynamics and calculated posterior population sizes simulating competition dynamics. Contrarily to our expectation, Arcella and Pyxidicula showed similar growth rates (1.37 and 1.46 days–1 respectively) and only different carrying capacity (1,997 and 25,108 cells cm–2 respectively). The maximum number of cells of both species when growing in competition was much lower if compared to the monospecific cultures (in average, 73% and 80% less for Arcella and Pyxidicula respectively). However, our competition experiments always resulted in coexistence. According to the models, the drop in growth rates and stochasticity mainly explains our coexistence results. We propose that a context of ephemeral resources can explain these results. Additionally, we propose generating factors of stochasticity as intraspecific variation, small population effects, toxicity of waste products and influence of the bacterial community.
0065-1583
217-233
Ribeiro, Giulia M.
40b086a2-89cb-43d0-a4a1-43bbd5126dd1
Prado, Paulo Inácio
6b637eec-8540-4593-be4d-e3cd4d50fc40
Coutinho, Renato Mendes
327d6278-9ee5-496c-b689-ca33256d1d5e
Rillo, Marina Costa
07ef3ed2-cf06-4d61-8c10-1acd1420ff43
Pereira Junior, Samuel
494b9496-0b07-4f12-a600-c84ea7d8be90
Porfirio-sousa, Alfredo L.
5a87d480-99e1-4a1a-aacd-7f9801355f55
Lahr, Daniel J. G.
89f9e641-8446-4ff6-8f5f-3b24448c1e59
Ribeiro, Giulia M.
40b086a2-89cb-43d0-a4a1-43bbd5126dd1
Prado, Paulo Inácio
6b637eec-8540-4593-be4d-e3cd4d50fc40
Coutinho, Renato Mendes
327d6278-9ee5-496c-b689-ca33256d1d5e
Rillo, Marina Costa
07ef3ed2-cf06-4d61-8c10-1acd1420ff43
Pereira Junior, Samuel
494b9496-0b07-4f12-a600-c84ea7d8be90
Porfirio-sousa, Alfredo L.
5a87d480-99e1-4a1a-aacd-7f9801355f55
Lahr, Daniel J. G.
89f9e641-8446-4ff6-8f5f-3b24448c1e59

Ribeiro, Giulia M., Prado, Paulo Inácio, Coutinho, Renato Mendes, Rillo, Marina Costa, Pereira Junior, Samuel, Porfirio-sousa, Alfredo L. and Lahr, Daniel J. G. (2019) Growth rate modulation enables coexistence in a competitive exclusion scenario between microbial eukaryotes. Acta Protozoologica, 58 (4), 217-233. (doi:10.4467/16890027AP.19.019.12021).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Coexistence usually are exceeding the explicable rate by competitive exclusion principle. Since the pioneer Gause, many studies have used protist microcosm systems to study competitive exclusion. We explored a two-species system with the testate-amoebae: (Arcella intermedia and Pyxidicula operculata), where competitive exclusion is expected to occur. We determined their growth curves individually and under competitive interaction. We used a state-space model to represent system dynamics and calculated posterior population sizes simulating competition dynamics. Contrarily to our expectation, Arcella and Pyxidicula showed similar growth rates (1.37 and 1.46 days–1 respectively) and only different carrying capacity (1,997 and 25,108 cells cm–2 respectively). The maximum number of cells of both species when growing in competition was much lower if compared to the monospecific cultures (in average, 73% and 80% less for Arcella and Pyxidicula respectively). However, our competition experiments always resulted in coexistence. According to the models, the drop in growth rates and stochasticity mainly explains our coexistence results. We propose that a context of ephemeral resources can explain these results. Additionally, we propose generating factors of stochasticity as intraspecific variation, small population effects, toxicity of waste products and influence of the bacterial community.

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Published date: 30 December 2019

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Local EPrints ID: 444441
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/444441
ISSN: 0065-1583
PURE UUID: 4fcfa60d-3c78-4ce3-a089-0cc4767836c5

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Date deposited: 19 Oct 2020 16:33
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 09:41

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Contributors

Author: Giulia M. Ribeiro
Author: Paulo Inácio Prado
Author: Renato Mendes Coutinho
Author: Marina Costa Rillo
Author: Samuel Pereira Junior
Author: Alfredo L. Porfirio-sousa
Author: Daniel J. G. Lahr

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