Experimental coevolution in microbial communities
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Department Name: Biosciences
Abstract
Coevolution is believed to be ubiquitous and have profound impacts on evolutionary and ecological processes. However, our understanding of coevolution is primarily derived from highly specialised pairwise interactions, such as hosts and parasites and plants and pollinators. Yet it is clear that species exist in complex communities, where they interact with multiple competing species. We currently have little idea as to how coevolution proceeds in these complex communities, or the resultant consequences of coevolution. We have developed a stable multi-species microbial system which we will use to experimentally determine how community diversity affects coevolution and its consequences, using a combination of phenotypic and 'omic techniques. We will test specific hypotheses generated from novel theory developed in parallel with the experimental work.
Organisations
Publications
Castledine M
(2023)
Antagonistic Mobile Genetic Elements Can Counteract Each Other's Effects on Microbial Community Composition.
in mBio
Lear L
(2022)
Copper selects for siderophore-mediated virulence in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
in BMC microbiology
Lear L
(2023)
The effect of metal remediation on the virulence and antimicrobial resistance of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
in Evolutionary applications
Luján AM
(2022)
Polymicrobial infections can select against Pseudomonas aeruginosa mutators because of quorum-sensing trade-offs.
in Nature ecology & evolution
Newbury A
(2022)
Fitness effects of plasmids shape the structure of bacteria-plasmid interaction networks.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Risely A
(2024)
Host- plasmid network structure in wastewater is linked to antimicrobial resistance genes.
in Nature communications
Visher E
(2021)
The three Ts of virulence evolution during zoonotic emergence.
in Proceedings. Biological sciences
Walsh SK
(2023)
The host phylogeny determines viral infectivity and replication across Staphylococcus host species.
in PLoS pathogens
Title | Data and Models (version 1) |
Description | This archive contains the following: a) Phage Susceptibility - a folder containing the scripts and data for MCMCglmms investigating the role of host phylogeny in the susceptibility of Staphylococcus to a bacteriophage, ISP. b) Leave One Out Cross Validation - a folder containing the scripts and data for MCMCglmm leave-one-out cross-validation where the ability of the model to predict the susceptibility of an unknown host based on the susceptibility of its neighbours and their phylogenetic relatedness is tested. The complete phylogeny for the 64 Staphylococcus strains can be found in either folder and is called: Staph_Phylogeny.nwk |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Data_and_Models_version_1_/21642209 |