Coexisting ecotypes in long-term evolution emerged from interacting trade-offs

Avik Mukherjee, Jade Ealy, Yanqing Huang, Nina Catherine Benites, Mark Polk and Markus Basan ()
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Avik Mukherjee: Harvard Medical School, Department of Systems biology
Jade Ealy: Harvard Medical School, Department of Systems biology
Yanqing Huang: Harvard Medical School, Department of Systems biology
Nina Catherine Benites: Harvard Medical School, Department of Systems biology
Mark Polk: Harvard Medical School, Department of Systems biology
Markus Basan: Harvard Medical School, Department of Systems biology

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Evolution of complex communities of coexisting microbes remains poorly understood. The long-term evolution experiment on Escherichia coli (LTEE) revealed the spontaneous emergence of stable coexistence of multiple ecotypes, which persisted for more than 14,000 generations of continuous evolution. Here, using a combination of experiments and computer simulations, we show that the emergence and persistence of this phenomenon can be explained by the combination of two interacting trade-offs, rooted in biochemical constraints: First, faster growth is enabled by higher fermentation and obligate acetate excretion. Second, faster growth results in longer lag times when utilizing acetate after glucose is depleted. This combination creates an ecological niche for a slower-growing ecotype, specialized in switching to acetate. These findings demonstrate that trade-offs can give rise to surprisingly complex communities with evolutionarily stable coexistence of multiple variants in even the simplest environments.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39471-9

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