Key Points
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As has been studied extensively for macroorganisms, competition between and within microbial species constitutes a crucial facet of microbial life in the environment.
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Individuals in a population of a single bacterial species will be in competition with each other when nutrients are limiting. If the ecological opportunity arises (such as when populations are grown in a spatially structured environment, providing multiple niches), intraspecies competition can lead to selection for the diversification of a bacterial population.
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Under some conditions, cooperation among individuals in a bacterial population can facilitate competition between groups. However, cooperation can be vulnerable to cheating.
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Bacteria engage in diverse active competitive strategies. These include: accumulating and storing specific nutrients, thereby depriving potential competitors; blocking access to favourable habitats (such as binding sites on a surface) or forcing the dispersal of competitors; motility, especially when directed (chemotaxis); producing antimicrobial toxins; and interfering with competitors' signalling.
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Microbial systems should be exploited further for testing ecological theories of competition. Additionally, new technologies should aid in moving the study of bacterial competition from the test tube to the natural habitats of microorganisms.
Abstract
Most natural environments harbour a stunningly diverse collection of microbial species. In these communities, bacteria compete with their neighbours for space and resources. Laboratory experiments with pure and mixed cultures have revealed many active mechanisms by which bacteria can impair or kill other microorganisms. In addition, a growing body of theoretical and experimental population studies indicates that the interactions within and between bacterial species can have a profound impact on the outcome of competition in nature. The next challenge is to integrate the findings of these laboratory and theoretical studies and to evaluate the predictions that they generate in more natural settings.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank L. Hoffman, E. P. Greenberg, G. Velicer and T. Platt for comments that improved the manuscript. Research in the Fuqua laboratory is supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) (GM080546) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF) (MCB-0703467 and DEB-0326842). M.E.H. was a trainee on the Indiana University Genetics, Cellular and Molecular Sciences Training Grant (GM007757). Research in the Parsek laboratory is supported by the NSF (MCB0822405), the NIH (R01 AI061396 and 1R01 AI077628-01A1) and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) (CFR565-CR07), and S.B.P. is supported by a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from the CFF.
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Glossary
- Competitive exclusion
-
When competition between species results in the elimination of one species from a given habitat or region.
- Resource ratio model of competition
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A theory that predicts the relationship between species' abilities to use resources, resource availability and the outcome of competitive interactions.
- Niche
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The set of environmental parameters that define the extent of a species habitat.
- Negative frequency-dependent selection
-
Selection that favours individuals only when they are rare in a population.
- Colicins
-
A group of bacteriocins that are produced by and toxic to some strains of Escherichia coli and other enteric bacteria. Colicin-producing strains are immune to the colicin that they produce, owing to their synthesis of an immunity protein.
- Kin selection
-
The accumulation of behaviours that may be detrimental to the fitness of the individual that performs them but that favour the survival of close relatives likely to harbour similar (or identical, in the case of a clonal bacterial population) alleles conferring the cooperative traits.
- Social cheaters
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Individuals in a population that benefit from the cooperative behaviour of other individuals without themselves contributing to cooperation.
- Co-evolution
-
The process by which two or more species contribute to the selective pressures that lead to adaptation of the interacting species.
- Scramble competition
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Competition in which one competitor deprives another of a resource (such as a nutrient or habitable space) by depleting that resource.
- Contest competition
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Competition in which one competitor actively harms the other, such as by fighting or by the production of toxins.
- Public goods
-
In evolutionary biology, any resource produced by one individual that is then available for exploitation by other individuals. An example would be extracellular proteases secreted by a bacterium.
- Bacteriocin
-
A proteinaceous toxin produced by bacteria, with antimicrobial toxicity. Most bacteriocins target other strains of the same species as the producing organism, but some have a broader spectrum of activity.
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Hibbing, M., Fuqua, C., Parsek, M. et al. Bacterial competition: surviving and thriving in the microbial jungle. Nat Rev Microbiol 8, 15–25 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2259
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2259
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