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Rapid niche shifts in bacteria following conditioning in novel soil environments

Rapid niche shifts in bacteria following conditioning in novel soil environments
Rapid niche shifts in bacteria following conditioning in novel soil environments

Realized niche breadth is generally expected to be smaller than fundamental niche breadth. For soil microorganisms, this is due in part to competition from co-occurring microbes, so removing competitors should allow for expanded use of resource and habitats (i.e. ecological release). We hypothesized that conditioning bacterial isolates to biotically cleared soils would allow for niche breadth expansion relative to ancestral bacteria, and that this niche expansion would be driven by habitat-dependent niche shifts between derived populations. We grew two taxonomically divergent bacteria for 3 months in four biotically cleared soils and a biotically cleared ‘home’ soil. We then assessed changes in the niche breadth and fitness (i.e. growth; respiration; carbon resource use) of conditioned bacteria. Post-conditioning, Pseudomonas populations showed the potential for increased growth rate in-culture and in-soil when conditioned to soils, and constrained resource use relative to the ancestral population, while Paenibacillus showed minimal changes in soil habitat breadth, but expanded resource use in conditioned populations. When introduced into complex novel environments containing reduced biotic pressure, soil bacteria can undergo rapid niche shifts, but this response varies across taxa and habitats. This suggests that species identity and habitat should interact to shape near-term niche shifts when microbes establish in new soil environments. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

ecological release, microbial ecology, niche shift, soil bacteria
0269-8463
3085-3095
Yates, Caylon F.
3fcb4ec9-4250-4ddf-b3f2-e29002d90ef0
Trexler, Ryan V.
d2d83916-b67a-40a5-b175-c0431cd80f98
Bonet, Idalys
f0b0d3a9-4cf8-4593-ad9f-0622cef99362
King, William L.
0bd4328a-34ba-4b9a-bf4e-1442c18c43fc
Hockett, Kevin L.
3544f98e-2856-4e9b-811e-f9bac8e83f13
Bell, Terrence H.
29863b8c-a89c-4077-b22d-62052cfb7225
Yates, Caylon F.
3fcb4ec9-4250-4ddf-b3f2-e29002d90ef0
Trexler, Ryan V.
d2d83916-b67a-40a5-b175-c0431cd80f98
Bonet, Idalys
f0b0d3a9-4cf8-4593-ad9f-0622cef99362
King, William L.
0bd4328a-34ba-4b9a-bf4e-1442c18c43fc
Hockett, Kevin L.
3544f98e-2856-4e9b-811e-f9bac8e83f13
Bell, Terrence H.
29863b8c-a89c-4077-b22d-62052cfb7225

Yates, Caylon F., Trexler, Ryan V., Bonet, Idalys, King, William L., Hockett, Kevin L. and Bell, Terrence H. (2022) Rapid niche shifts in bacteria following conditioning in novel soil environments. Functional Ecology, 36 (12), 3085-3095. (doi:10.1111/1365-2435.14180).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Realized niche breadth is generally expected to be smaller than fundamental niche breadth. For soil microorganisms, this is due in part to competition from co-occurring microbes, so removing competitors should allow for expanded use of resource and habitats (i.e. ecological release). We hypothesized that conditioning bacterial isolates to biotically cleared soils would allow for niche breadth expansion relative to ancestral bacteria, and that this niche expansion would be driven by habitat-dependent niche shifts between derived populations. We grew two taxonomically divergent bacteria for 3 months in four biotically cleared soils and a biotically cleared ‘home’ soil. We then assessed changes in the niche breadth and fitness (i.e. growth; respiration; carbon resource use) of conditioned bacteria. Post-conditioning, Pseudomonas populations showed the potential for increased growth rate in-culture and in-soil when conditioned to soils, and constrained resource use relative to the ancestral population, while Paenibacillus showed minimal changes in soil habitat breadth, but expanded resource use in conditioned populations. When introduced into complex novel environments containing reduced biotic pressure, soil bacteria can undergo rapid niche shifts, but this response varies across taxa and habitats. This suggests that species identity and habitat should interact to shape near-term niche shifts when microbes establish in new soil environments. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 5 September 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 21 September 2022
Published date: 30 November 2022
Additional Information: Funding Information: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. DGE1255832. This work was also supported by the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (grant no. 2020‐67013‐30865), under Hatch Appropriations PEN04651 and Accession 1016233 and Hatch Appropriations PEN04648 and Accession 1016871. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Functional Ecology © 2022 British Ecological Society.
Keywords: ecological release, microbial ecology, niche shift, soil bacteria

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 486541
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/486541
ISSN: 0269-8463
PURE UUID: af90cb8d-c3d3-4c7a-8b15-9a251e150ca1
ORCID for William L. King: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7272-8242

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Date deposited: 25 Jan 2024 17:35
Last modified: 11 Jul 2024 02:17

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Contributors

Author: Caylon F. Yates
Author: Ryan V. Trexler
Author: Idalys Bonet
Author: William L. King ORCID iD
Author: Kevin L. Hockett
Author: Terrence H. Bell

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