Competing associations in bacterial warfare with two toxins

Abstract

Simple combinations of common competitive mechanisms can easily result in cyclic competitive dominance relationships between species. The topological features of such competitive networks allow for complex spatial coexistence patterns. We investigate self-organization and coexistence in a lattice model, describing the spatial population dynamics of competing bacterial strains. With increasing diffusion rate the community of the nine possible toxicity/resistance types undergoes two phase transitions. Below a critical level of diffusion, the system exhibits expanding domains of three different defensive alliances, each consisting of three cyclically dominant species. Due to the neutral relationship between these alliances and the finite system size effect, ultimately only one of them remains. At large diffusion rates the system admits three coexisting domains, each containing mutually neutral species. Because of the cyclical dominance between these domains, a long term stable coexistence of all species is ensured. In the third phase at intermediate diffusion the spatial structure becomes even more complicated with domains of mutually neutral species persisting along the borders of defensive alliances. The study reveals that cyclic competitive relationships may produce a large variety of complex coexistence patterns, exhibiting common features of natural ecosystems, like hierarchical organization, phase transitions and sudden, large-scale fluctuations.