Stochastic assembly produces heterogeneous communities in the Caenorhabditis elegans intestine
Name
Vega-2017-Stochastic assembly produces heterog.pdf
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2.43 MB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
001d2df807bf54ae1b12298de0659bc2
Author(s)
Vega, Nicole
Gore, Jeff
Date Issued
March 2017
Journal
PLOS Biology
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Citation
Vega, Nicole M., and Jeff Gore. “Stochastic Assembly Produces Heterogeneous Communities in the Caenorhabditis Elegans Intestine.” Ed. Ken Cadwell. PLOS Biology 15.3 (2017): e2000633.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Host-associated bacterial communities vary extensively between individuals, but it can be very difficult to determine the sources of this heterogeneity. Here, we demonstrate that stochastic bacterial community assembly in the Caenorhabditis elegans intestine is sufficient to produce strong interworm heterogeneity in community composition. When worms are fed with two neutrally competing, fluorescently labeled bacterial strains, we observe stochastically driven bimodality in community composition, in which approximately half of the worms are dominated by each bacterial strain. A simple model incorporating stochastic colonization suggests that heterogeneity between worms is driven by the low rate at which bacteria successfully establish new intestinal colonies. We can increase this rate experimentally by feeding worms at high bacterial density; in these conditions, the bimodality disappears. These results demonstrate that demographic noise is a potentially important driver of diversity in bacterial community formation and suggest a role for C. elegans as a model system for ecology of host-associated communities.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2000633
