Abstract
The spatial context of microbial interactions common in natural systems is largely absent in traditional pure culture-based microbiology. The understanding of how interdependent microbial communities assemble and coexist in limited spatial domains remains sketchy. A mechanistic model of cell-level interactions among multispecies microbial populations grown on hydrated rough surfaces facilitated systematic evaluation of how trophic dependencies shape spatial self-organization of microbial consortia in complex diffusion fields. The emerging patterns were persistent irrespective of initial conditions and resilient to spatial and temporal perturbations. Surprisingly, the hydration conditions conducive for self-assembly are extremely narrow and last only while microbial cells remain motile within thin aqueous films. The resulting self-organized microbial consortia patterns could represent optimal ecological templates for the architecture that underlie sessile microbial colonies on natural surfaces. Understanding microbial spatial self-organization offers new insights into mechanisms that sustain small-scale soil microbial diversity; and may guide the engineering of functional artificial microbial consortia.
Highlights
The spatial context of microbial interactions common in natural systems is largely absent in traditional pure culture-based microbiology
A mechanistic model of cell-level interactions among multispecies microbial populations grown on hydrated rough surfaces facilitated systematic evaluation of how trophic dependencies shape spatial self-organization of microbial consortia in complex diffusion fields
The wide range of trophic interactions and the inherent variability of nutrient fluxes in soil give rise to the formation of microbial consortia that are considered important for maintaining stable ecological interactions within a complex and dynamic soil environment[7,8,9]
Summary
A mechanistic model of cell-level interactions among multispecies microbial populations grown on hydrated rough surfaces facilitated systematic evaluation of how trophic dependencies shape spatial self-organization of microbial consortia in complex diffusion fields. The present study combines concepts from www.nature.com/scientificreports microbial biology with physical representation of hydrated soil surfaces enabling mechanistic quantification of microbial nutrient uptake, growth, movement, and interactions with neighboring cells at their local (and dynamic) environments. These are essential ingredients for understanding microbial life in the natural concourse[11]. We added complexity with a third species (sp3) that utilizes a by-product (nutrient 3 2 N3) excreted by the two species as a food source in commensal or mutualistic relations (see Table 1)
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