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Comment
. 2015 Sep 8;112(36):11148-9.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1514399112. Epub 2015 Aug 26.

Evolution of coexistence in a crowded microplate well

J Arjan G M de Visser  1
Affiliations
Comment

Evolution of coexistence in a crowded microplate well

J Arjan G M de Visser. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Coexistence of ecotypes with differential access to limiting resources evolved in two experimental microcosms. (A) Pseudomonas fluorescens microcosm where three ecotypes coexist while competing for access to growth-limiting oxygen (gray gradient) at the air–liquid interface via different strategies (12). Trade-offs between the success in positioning cells at the air–liquid interface and the probability of failure for each strategy cause time-lagged frequency-dependent interactions that maintain the dynamical coexistence of the three types. Arrows indicate which type invades which other type when rare. (B) Saccharomyces cerevisiae microcosm where two ecotypes live near the bottom of the microplate well, causing the depletion of an unknown limiting resource (gray gradient). One ecotype (B type or “bottom dweller”) ends up at the very bottom of the well; the other ecotype (A type or “adherent”) attaches also to the sides of the wall of the well (1). Adherent cells initially grow slower than bottom dwellers upon transfer to fresh medium, but later avoid the crowding suffered by bottom dwellers, when only cells in the top layer (dark brown) have access to resources and cells below that layer (light brown) cannot reproduce. Here, a trade-off between the ability to grow at low and high cell density stabilizes coexistence of the two types.
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References

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