荷兰AMOLF Sander J. Tans和Thomas S. Shimizu团队合作发现，运动能力与空间竞争协调促进细菌共存。相关论文于2020年2月19日在线发表在《自然》杂志上。
研究人员发现在同一营养物上定居的混合细菌种群，相对丰度度低的种群可以在两个种群竞争中胜出。这种竞争等级制的倒置是由营养物内主动隔离和空间排斥引起的，快速迁移的小型种群可以通过阻止大型快速增殖种群迁移到营养物中而胜出，同时在两个种群开始接触的地带，小型快速增殖的种群也可以通过驱逐快速迁移大型种群而胜出。
由于弱的增殖-迁移速率和缺乏原始空间而导致空间隔离消失，但种群比率、密度和趋化能力对空间隔离有很大影响，并且这种现象在实验室菌株和野生菌株中都可以观察到。
这些发现表明，种群运动能力差异及其生长频率足以促进多样性，并揭示了运动能力在生态位形成和集体驱逐－遏制策略中所未曾描述的作用。
据了解，阐明构成细菌多样性的基本机制是生态学和微生物组学研究的核心。已知细菌通过代谢特化、合作和循环竞争共存。许多物种是可以运动的，并从机理、效益、策略、进化和生态学方面进行了研究。细菌经常争夺营养物，这些营养物会周期性或由于随机干扰而可用。然而，缺乏细菌运动性与细菌共存的研究。
附：英文原文
Title: Bacterial coexistence driven by motility and spatial competition
Author: Sebastian Gude, Era Pine, Katja M. Taute, Anne-Bart Seinen, Thomas S. Shimizu, Sander J. Tans
Issue&Volume: 2020-02-19
Abstract: Elucidating elementary mechanisms that underlie bacterial diversity is central to ecology1,2 and microbiome research3. Bacteria are known to coexist by metabolic specialization4, cooperation5 and cyclic warfare6,7,8. Many species are also motile9, which is studied in terms of mechanism10,11, benefit12,13, strategy14,15, evolution16,17 and ecology18,19. Indeed, bacteria often compete for nutrient patches that become available periodically or by random disturbances2,20,21. However, the role of bacterial motility in coexistence remains unexplored experimentally. Here we show that—for mixed bacterial populations that colonize nutrient patches—either population outcompetes the other when low in relative abundance. This inversion of the competitive hierarchy is caused by active segregation and spatial exclusion within the patch: a small fast-moving population can outcompete a large fast-growing population by impeding its migration into the patch, while a small fast-growing population can outcompete a large fast-moving population by expelling it from the initial contact area. The resulting spatial segregation is lost for weak growth–migration trade-offs and a lack of virgin space, but is robust to population ratio, density and chemotactic ability, and is observed in both laboratory and wild strains. These findings show that motility differences and their trade-offs with growth are sufficient to promote diversity, and suggest previously undescribed roles for motility in niche formation and collective expulsion–containment strategies beyond individual search and survival.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2033-2
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2033-2
Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html
本期文章：《自然》：Online/在线发表
