title: An experimental model for the spatial structuring and selection of bacterial communities.
abstract: Community-level selection is an important concept in evolutionary biology and has been predicted to arise in systems that are spatially structured. Here we develop an experimental model for spatially-structured bacterial communities based on coaggregating strains and test their relative fitness under a defined selection pressure. As selection we apply protozoan grazing in a defined, continuous culturing system. We demonstrate that a slow-growing bacterial strain Blastomonas natatoria 2.1, which forms coaggregates with Micrococcus luteus, can outcompete a fast-growing, closely related strain Blastomonas natatoria 2.8 under conditions of protozoan grazing. The competitive benefit provided by spatial structuring has implications for the evolution of natural bacterial communities in the environment.
authors: Centre for Marine Bio-Innovation and School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
authors: Torsten
authors: T
authors: Thomas
authors: Ilona
authors: I
authors: Kindinger
authors: Dan
authors: D
authors: Yu
authors: Meera
authors: M
authors: Esvaran
authors: Linda
authors: L
authors: Blackall
authors: Hugh
authors: H
authors: Forehead
authors: Craig R
authors: CR
authors: Johnson
authors: Mike
authors: M
authors: Manefield
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D017753:Ecosystem; D008837:Micrococcus / Q000254:growth & development*; D008954:Models, Biological; D044663:Ochromonas / Q000502:physiology*; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D042301:Sphingomonadaceae / Q000254:growth & development*