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Population regulation and adaptive dynamics of cross-feeding

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Abstract

The particular importance of evolutionary studies in microbial experimental systems is that starting from the level of the metabolism of individual cells, the adaptive dynamics can be followed step by step by biochemical, genetic, and population dynamical tools. Moreover, the coincidence of evolutionary and ecological time scales helps to clarify the mutual role of ecological and evolutionary principles in predicting adaptive dynamics in general. Ecological principles define the ecological conditions under which adaptive branching can occur. This paper overviews and interprets the results of empirical and modeling studies of the evolution of metabolic cross-feeding in glucose-limited E.coli chemostats and batch cultures in the context of theories of robust coexistence and adaptive dynamics. Empirical results consistently demonstrate that the interactions between cells are mediated by the changing metabolite concentrations in the cultures and modeling confirms that these changes may control the adaptive dynamics of the clones. In consequence, the potential results of evolution can be predicted at the functional level by evolutionary flux balance analysis (evoFBA), while the genetic changes are more contingent. evoFBA follows the scheme of adaptive dynamics theory by calculating the feedback environment that changes during the evolutionary process and provides a promising tool to further investigate adaptive divergence in small microbial communities. Three general conclusions close the paper.

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Modified from Kinnersley et al. (2014)

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Acknowledgements

I’m grateful to Benjamin Good for raising my attention to the paper of Grosskopf et al. and Franz Rosenzweig for clarifying some points about their work. Géza Meszéna and two anonymous referees helped to improve the manuscript.

Funding

The author’s work was partly supported by NKFI (National Research, Development and Innovation Office) research Grant 123796.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Advanced Studies, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, 800 000, Siberia, Russia

    Liz Pásztor

  2. Department of Genetics, Eötvös University (ELTE), Budapest, Hungary

    Liz Pásztor

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  1. Liz Pásztor
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Correspondence to Liz Pásztor.

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Pásztor, L. Population regulation and adaptive dynamics of cross-feeding. BIOLOGIA FUTURA 73, 393–403 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42977-022-00147-y

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