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Diversity, Stability, and Reproducibility in Stochastically Assembled Microbial Ecosystems

Akshit Goyal and Sergei Maslov
Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 158102 – Published 13 April 2018
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Abstract

Microbial ecosystems are remarkably diverse, stable, and usually consist of a mixture of core and peripheral species. Here we propose a conceptual model exhibiting all these emergent properties in quantitative agreement with real ecosystem data, specifically species abundance and prevalence distributions. Resource competition and metabolic commensalism drive the stochastic ecosystem assembly in our model. We demonstrate that even when supplied with just one resource, ecosystems can exhibit high diversity, increasing stability, and partial reproducibility between samples.

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  • Received 3 November 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.158102

© 2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Physics of Living SystemsStatistical Physics & Thermodynamics

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How 1000 Bacterial Species Can Coexist

Published 13 April 2018

The surprising stability of large and diverse bacterial communities can be explained by a model that emphasizes the microbes’ food requirements.

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Authors & Affiliations

Akshit Goyal

  • The Simons Centre for the Study of Living Machines, NCBS-TIFR, Bengaluru 560 065, India

Sergei Maslov*

  • Department of Bioengineering and Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA

  • *maslov@illinois.edu

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Issue

Vol. 120, Iss. 15 — 13 April 2018

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