424: Stranger Cells Switch Stable States

This episode: Certain bacteria can greatly affect the makeup of a
microbial community, even if they quickly disappear!


 


Thanks to Dr. Daniel Amor for his contribution!


Download Episode (6.3 MB, 9.2 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Gadgets Gully virus

News item

Takeaways



Microbial communities show more than just competition between
species. Stable assemblies of many species can exist for long
periods in places like the human gut, despite constant minor
shifts in conditions. More major shifts, or invaders like
pathogens coming in and taking over, can cause big disruptions
in the community and lead to long-term gut dysbiosis, which can
be, interestingly, also a stable community. 


 


This study shows that invaders into a community, even if they
don't persist for very long, can cause a shift from one stable
state to another, by favoring the dominance of a species or
group that was not dominant before, for example by changing the
pH of the environment. So competition is always present. This
could be helpful to know for efforts to intentionally shift
community structures.




Journal Paper:
Amor DR, Ratzke C, Gore J. 2020. Transient invaders can induce
shifts between alternative stable states of microbial
communities. Sci Adv 6:eaay8676.


Other interesting stories:



Symbiotic bacteria engineered to protect honeybees from
pathogens

Mouse diet differences in fiber show much more effect on
microbiome than differences in fat (paper)




 


Email questions or comments to bacteriofiles at gmail dot
com. Thanks for listening!


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