Local adaptation of a bacterium is as important as its presence in structuring a natural microbial community.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27501868.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms12453 and PMC identifier 4980492.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Local adaptation of a species can affect community composition, yet the importance of local adaptation compared with species presence per se is unknown. Here we determine how a compost bacterial community exposed to elevated temperature changes over 2 months as a result of the presence of a focal bacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25, that had been pre-adapted or not to the compost for 48 days. The effect of local adaptation on community composition is as great as the effect of species presence per se, with these results robust to the presence of an additional strong selection pressure: an SBW25-specific virus. These findings suggest that evolution occurring over ecological time scales can be a key driver of the structure of natural microbial communities, particularly in situations where some species have an evolutionary head start following large perturbations, such as exposure to antibiotics or crop planting and harvesting.
Medical subject headings
- Adaptation, Physiological
- Pseudomonas fluorescens