title: Competitive and cooperative metabolic interactions in bacterial communities.
abstract: Revealing the ecological principles that shape communities is a major challenge of the post-genomic era. To date, a systematic approach for describing inter-species interactions has been lacking. Here we independently predict the competitive and cooperative potential between 6,903 bacterial pairs derived from a collection of 118 species' metabolic models. We chart an intricate association between competition and cooperation indicating that the cooperative potential is maximized at moderate levels of resource overlap. Utilizing ecological data from 2,801 samples, we explore the associations between bacterial interactions and coexistence patterns. The high level of competition observed between species with mutual-exclusive distribution patterns supports the role of competition in community assembly. Cooperative interactions are typically unidirectional with no obvious benefit to the giver. However, within their natural communities, bacteria typically form close cooperative loops resulting in indirect benefit to all species involved. These findings are important for the future design of consortia optimized towards bioremediation and bio-production applications.
authors.affiliation: Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Shiri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Freilich
authors.forename: Raphy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zarecki
authors.forename: Omer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Eilam
authors.forename: Ella Shtifman
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Segal
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kupiec
authors.forename: Uri
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Gophna
authors.forename: Roded
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sharan
authors.forename: Eytan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ruppin
mesh_terms: D000898:Antibiosis / Q000502:physiology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D059013:Microbial Consortia / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D013559:Symbiosis / Q000502:physiology*