title: Constraints on microbial metabolism drive evolutionary diversification in homogeneous environments.
abstract: Understanding the evolution of microbial diversity is an important and current problem in evolutionary ecology. In this paper, we investigated the role of two established biochemical trade-offs in microbial diversification using a model that connects ecological and evolutionary processes with fundamental aspects of biochemistry. The trade-offs that we investigated are as follows:(1) a trade-off between the rate and affinity of substrate transport; and (2) a trade-off between the rate and yield of ATP production. Our model shows that these biochemical trade-offs can drive evolutionary diversification under the simplest possible ecological conditions: a homogeneous environment containing a single limiting resource. We argue that the results of a number of microbial selection experiments are consistent with the predictions of our model.
authors: Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, UK. i.gudelj@maths.bath.ac.uk
authors: I
authors: I
authors: Gudelj
authors: R E
authors: RE
authors: Beardmore
authors: S S
authors: SS
authors: Arkin
authors: R C
authors: RC
authors: MacLean
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005658:Fungi / Q000145:classification / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological