scholarly journals Interspecific Niche Competition Increases Morphological Diversity in Multi-Species Microbial Communities

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Lin Chu ◽  
Quan-Guo Zhang ◽  
Angus Buckling ◽  
Meaghan Castledine
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Radiation ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Competitive Exclusion ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
Morphological Diversity ◽  
Adaptive Diversification ◽  
Focal Species ◽  
Key Species ◽  
Niche Competition

Intraspecific competition for limited niches has been recognized as a driving force for adaptive radiation, but results for the role of interspecific competition have been mixed. Here, we report the adaptive diversification of the model bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens in the presence of different numbers and combinations of four competing bacterial species. Increasing the diversity of competitive community increased the morphological diversity of focal species, which is caused by impeding the domination of a single morphotype. Specifically, this pattern was driven by more diverse communities being more likely to contain key species that occupy the same niche as otherwise competitively superior morphotype, and thus preventing competitive exclusion within the focal species. Our results suggest that sympatric adaptive radiation is driven by the presence or absence of niche-specific competitors.

scholarly journals Convergence across a continent: adaptive diversification in a recent radiation of Australian lizards

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1832) ◽  
pp. 20160181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mozes P. K. Blom ◽  
Paul Horner ◽  
Craig Moritz
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Radiation ◽  
Ecological Speciation ◽  
Habitat Specialization ◽  
Ecological Framework ◽  
Diverse Group ◽  
Adaptive Diversification ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
Exon Capture ◽  
Branch Lengths

Recent radiations are important to evolutionary biologists, because they provide an opportunity to study the mechanisms that link micro- and macroevolution. The role of ecological speciation during adaptive radiation has been intensively studied, but radiations can arise from a diversity of evolutionary processes; in particular, on large continental landmasses where allopatric speciation might frequently precede ecological differentiation. It is therefore important to establish a phylogenetic and ecological framework for recent continental-scale radiations that are species-rich and ecologically diverse. Here, we use a genomic (approx. 1 200 loci, exon capture) approach to fit branch lengths on a summary-coalescent species tree and generate a time-calibrated phylogeny for a recent and ecologically diverse radiation of Australian scincid lizards; the genus Cryptoblepharus . We then combine the phylogeny with a comprehensive phenotypic dataset for over 800 individuals across the 26 species, and use comparative methods to test whether habitat specialization can explain current patterns of phenotypic variation in ecologically relevant traits. We find significant differences in morphology between species that occur in distinct environments and convergence in ecomorphology with repeated habitat shifts across the continent. These results suggest that isolated analogous habitats have provided parallel ecological opportunity and have repeatedly promoted adaptive diversification. By contrast, speciation processes within the same habitat have resulted in distinct lineages with relatively limited morphological variation. Overall, our study illustrates how alternative diversification processes might have jointly stimulated species proliferation across the continent and generated a remarkably diverse group of Australian lizards.

scholarly journals Phylogenetic context determines the role of competition in adaptive radiation

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1833) ◽  
pp. 20160241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaqi Tan ◽  
Matthew R. Slattery ◽  
Xian Yang ◽  
Lin Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Radiation ◽  
Phylogenetic Signal ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Context Dependency ◽  
Phylogenetic Distance ◽  
Competitive Fitness ◽  
Competitive Effects ◽  
Niche Differences

Understanding ecological mechanisms regulating the evolution of biodiversity is of much interest to ecologists and evolutionary biologists. Adaptive radiation constitutes an important evolutionary process that generates biodiversity. Competition has long been thought to influence adaptive radiation, but the directionality of its effect and associated mechanisms remain ambiguous. Here, we report a rigorous experimental test of the role of competition on adaptive radiation using the rapidly evolving bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 interacting with multiple bacterial species that differed in their phylogenetic distance to the diversifying bacterium. We showed that the inhibitive effect of competitors on the adaptive radiation of P. fluorescens decreased as their phylogenetic distance increased. To explain this phylogenetic dependency of adaptive radiation, we linked the phylogenetic distance between P. fluorescens and its competitors to their niche and competitive fitness differences. Competitive fitness differences, which showed weak phylogenetic signal, reduced P. fluorescens abundance and thus diversification, whereas phylogenetically conserved niche differences promoted diversification. These results demonstrate the context dependency of competitive effects on adaptive radiation, and highlight the importance of past evolutionary history for ongoing evolutionary processes.

scholarly journals Distinct Metagenomic Signatures in the SARS-CoV-2 Infection

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yijun Liu ◽  
Hongyang Zhang ◽  
Xiaojun Tang ◽  
Xuejun Jiang ◽  
Xiaojuan Yan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
Gastrointestinal Symptoms ◽  
Microbiome Composition ◽  
Key Species ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Genome Annotations ◽  
And Function ◽  
First Time

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can cause gastrointestinal symptoms in the patients, but the role of gut microbiota in SARS-CoV-2 infection remains unclear. Thus, in this study, we aim to investigate whether SARS-CoV-2 infection affects the composition and function of gut microbiota. In this study, we demonstrated for the first time that significant shifts in microbiome composition and function were appeared in both SARS-CoV-2-infected asymptomatic and symptomatic cases. The relative abundance of Candidatus_Saccharibacteria was significantly increased, whereas the levels of Fibrobacteres was remarkably reduced in SARS-CoV-2-infected cases. There was one bacterial species, Spirochaetes displayed the difference between patients and asymptomatic cases. On the genus level, Tyzzerella was the key species that remarkably increased in both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases. Analyses of genome annotations further revealed SARS-CoV-2 infection resulted in the significant ‘functional dysbiosis’ of gut microbiota, including metabolic pathway, regulatory pathway and biosynthesis of secondary metabolites etc. We also identified potential metagenomic markers to discriminate SARS-CoV-2-infected symptomatic and asymptomatic cases from healthy controls. These findings together suggest gut microbiota is of possible etiological and diagnostic importance for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

scholarly journals Continental cichlid radiations: functional diversity reveals the role of changing ecological opportunity in the Neotropics

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1836) ◽  
pp. 20160556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Hilary Arbour ◽  
Hernán López-Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Adaptive Radiation ◽  
Morphological Diversity ◽  
Evolutionary Rates ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Ecological Opportunity ◽  
Ecological Release ◽  
Adaptive Radiations ◽  
Lineage Diversification

Adaptive radiations have been hypothesized to contribute broadly to the diversity of organisms. Models of adaptive radiation predict that ecological opportunity and ecological release, the availability of empty ecological niches and the response by adapting lineages to occupy them, respectively, drive patterns of phenotypic and lineage diversification. Adaptive radiations driven by ‘ecological opportunity’ are well established in island systems; it is less clear if ecological opportunity influences continent-wide diversification. We use Neotropical cichlid fishes to test if variation in rates of functional evolution is consistent with changing ecological opportunity. Across a functional morphological axis associated with ram–suction feeding traits, evolutionary rates declined through time as lineages diversified in South America. Evolutionary rates of ram–suction functional morphology also appear to have accelerated as cichlids colonized Central America and encountered renewed opportunity. Our results suggest that ecological opportunity may play an important role in shaping patterns of morphological diversity of even broadly distributed lineages like Neotropical cichlids.

Economic Growth: New Problems and New Risks

2006 ◽  
pp. 20-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ershov
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Foreign Exchange ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Rate Of Growth

The economic growth, which is underway in Russia, raises new questions to be addressed. How to improve the quality of growth, increasing the role of new competitive sectors and transforming them into the driving force of growth? How can progressive structural changes be implemented without hampering the rate of growth in general? What are the main external and internal risks, which may undermine positive trends of development? The author looks upon financial, monetary and foreign exchange aspects of the problem and comes up with some suggestions on how to make growth more competitive and sustainable.

La politique forestière vaudoise: une orientation résolument «patrimoine multifonctionnel» | Forestry policy in the canton of Vaud: the “multifunctional heritage” option

2011 ◽  
Vol 162 (7) ◽  
pp. 209-215
Author(s):  
Jean-François Métraux
Keyword(s):  
Driving Force ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
The Political ◽  
Wood Production ◽  
Forest Owners ◽  
Forestry Policy ◽  
Forestry Management ◽  
Political Decisions ◽  
Forest Managers

In the years since 2000, the authorities in charge of forests in canton Vaud have made some substantial changes as a reaction to the political decisions arising from the Swiss Forest Programme and the projected revision of the Federal forestry Law, as well as to the deterioration of the economic situation in forestry enterprises. This article gives a survey of the directions taken. Thus the canton recognises the primordial role of wood production as a driving force behind the creation of a multifunctional forest. The Service for Forests, Wildlife and Nature has invested a great deal in planning, and has redefined the management plan to be an instrument intended for forest owners and forest managers. The canton has innovated by introducing forestry groups and a scheme of equalisation of forestry costs between communes. Hence the conception of forestry management in canton Vaud is resolutely that of a multifunctional natural heritage.

Investigation on the antibacterial activity of electronic cigarette liquids (ECLs): a proof of concept study

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Fuochi ◽  
Massimo Caruso ◽  
Rosalia Emma ◽  
Aldo Stivala ◽  
Riccardo Polosa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antibacterial Activity ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
A549 Cells ◽  
Bactericidal Effect ◽  
Minimal Bactericidal Concentration ◽  
Viability Assay ◽  
Dependent Inhibition ◽  
Dose Dependent Inhibition ◽  
Dose Dependent

Background: The key ingredients of e-cigarettes liquid are commonly propane-1,2-diol (also called propylene glycol) and propane-1,2,3-triol (vegetal glycerol) and their antimicrobial effects are already established. The nicotine and flavors which are often present in e-liquids can interfere with the growth of some microorganisms. Objective: The effect of the combining these elements in e-liquids is unknown. The aim of the study was to investigate the possible effects of these liquids on bacterial growth in the presence or absence of nicotine and flavors. Methods: Susceptibilities of pathogenic strains (Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis and Sarcina lutea) were studied by means of a multidisciplinary approach. Cell viability and antioxidant assays were also evaluated. Results: All e-liquids investigated showed antibacterial activity against at least one pathogenic strain. A higher activity was correlated to the presence of flavors and nicotine. Discussion: In most cases the value of minimal bactericidal concentration is equal to the value of minimal inhibitory concentration showing that these substances have a bactericidal effect. This effect was observed in concentrations up to 6.25% v/v. Antioxidant activity was also correlated to presence of flavors. Over time, the viability assay in human epithelial lung A549 cells showed a dose-dependent inhibition of cell growth. Conclusion: Our results have shown that flavors considerably enhance the antibacterial activity of propane-1,2-diol and propane-1,2,3-triol. This study provides important evidence that should be taken into consideration in further investigative approaches, to clarify the different sensitivity of the various bacterial species to e-liquids, including the respiratory microbiota, to highlight the possible role of flavors and nicotine.

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