Resource diversity and supply drive colonization resistance
Ethan S. Rappaport, Renato Mirollo, Babak Momeni, Jordan Douglas, Jordan Douglas, Jordan Douglas

TL;DR
This study explores how resource diversity and supply affect the ability of microbial communities to resist invasion by pathogens.
Contribution
The paper introduces a computational model to show how environmental resources shape colonization resistance in microbial communities.
Findings
Colonization resistance is negatively correlated with resource supply and diversity, except under limited resource supply.
Cross-feeding weakens colonization resistance by increasing resource diversity, but this effect disappears with limited resources.
The richness-resistance relationship is non-monotonic and influenced by environmental characteristics.
Abstract
The human microbiota plays a key role in resisting the colonization of pathogenic microbes, a process known as colonization resistance. However, there is a need to better understand the mechanisms by which colonization of invaders is blocked. Environmental resource supply and resource diversity are essential factors in forming these communities but testing how the environment affects resistance in natural communities is challenging. Here we use a consumer-resource model and computational invasion simulations to investigate how environmental resource diversity and supply affect the richness-resistance relationship, overall colonization resistance, and cross-feeding dynamics. We find a non-monotonic trend between species richness and resistance, shaped by environmental characteristics. Our results show that colonization resistance is negatively correlated with both resource supply and…
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Taxonomy
TopicsZoonotic diseases and public health · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Gut microbiota and health
