Adaptation limits ecological diversification and promotes ecological tinkering during the competition for substitutable resources

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 115; no. 44; pp. E10407 - E10416
• Main Authors: Good, Benjamin H., Martis, Stephen, Hallatschek, Oskar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 30.10.2018; National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC (United States)
• Series: PNAS Plus
• Subjects: Adaptation; Adaptation, Physiological - physiology; asexual evolution; BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; Biodiversity; Biological Sciences; coexistence; Communities; Competition; Ecological effects; Ecological niches; Ecology - methods; Ecosystem; Ecosystems; Ecotype; Ecotypes; Evolution; Fitness; Genealogy; Growth rate; Microbial activity; Microorganisms; Models, Biological; Mutation; Niches; Other Topics; Phenotype; Physical Sciences; PNAS Plus; Population Dynamics; Reproductive fitness; resource competition; Science & Technology; Selection, Genetic - genetics; asexual evolution; coexistence; resource competition

Microbial communities can evade competitive exclusion by diversifying into distinct ecological niches. This spontaneous diversification often occurs amid a backdrop of directional selection on other microbial traits, where competitive exclusion would normally apply. Yet despite their empirical relev...