Cross-feeding Creates Tipping Points in Microbiome Diversity

TL;DR

This paper models microbial communities using network science to identify critical tipping points where diversity collapses due to cross-feeding network failures, offering insights into microbiome robustness and unculturability.

Contribution

It introduces a novel network-based model revealing ecological tipping points in microbiome diversity caused by cross-feeding network collapse.

Findings

Identified abrupt diversity declines at specific network thresholds

Linked unculturability of microbes to inherent properties of cross-feeding networks

Provided a framework for understanding microbiome robustness and collapse

Abstract

A key unresolved question in microbial ecology is how the extraordinary diversity of microbiomes emerges from the behaviour of individual populations. This process is driven by the cross-feeding networks that structure these communities, but are hard to untangle due to their inherent complexity. We address this problem using the tools of network science to develop a model of microbial community structure. We discover tipping points at which diversity abruptly declines due to the catastrophic collapse of cross-feeding networks. Our results are a rare example of an ecological tipping point in diversity and provide insight into the fundamental processes shaping microbiota and their robustness. We illustrate this by showing how the unculturability of microbial diversity emerges as an inherent property of their microbial cross-feeding networks.