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Experimental demonstration that screening can enable the environmental recruitment of a defensive microbiome

Tabitha Innocent, Neil Holmes, Mahmoud Al Bassam, Morten Schiøtt, István Scheuring, Barrie Wilkinson, Matthew I Hutchings, Jacobus J Boomsma, View ORCID ProfileDouglas W Yu
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/375634
Tabitha Innocent
1Centre for Social Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
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  • For correspondence: tabitha.innocent@bio.ku.dk m.hutchings@uea.ac.uk jjboomsma@bio.ku.dk dougwyu@mac.com
Neil Holmes
2School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7TJ United Kingdom
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Mahmoud Al Bassam
2School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7TJ United Kingdom
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Morten Schiøtt
1Centre for Social Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
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István Scheuring
3MTA-ELTE Theoretical Biology and Evolutionary Ecology Research Group, Pázmány Péter sétány, 1/C, 1117, Budapest, Hungary
4MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Evolutionary Systems Research Group, Klebelsberg K. u. 3, 8237, Tihany, Hungary
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Barrie Wilkinson
5Department of Molecular Microbiology, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7UH United Kingdom
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Matthew I Hutchings
2School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7TJ United Kingdom
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  • For correspondence: tabitha.innocent@bio.ku.dk m.hutchings@uea.ac.uk jjboomsma@bio.ku.dk dougwyu@mac.com
Jacobus J Boomsma
1Centre for Social Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
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  • For correspondence: tabitha.innocent@bio.ku.dk m.hutchings@uea.ac.uk jjboomsma@bio.ku.dk dougwyu@mac.com
Douglas W Yu
2School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7TJ United Kingdom
6State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming Yunnan, 650223 China
7Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming Yunnan, 650223 China
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  • ORCID record for Douglas W Yu
  • For correspondence: tabitha.innocent@bio.ku.dk m.hutchings@uea.ac.uk jjboomsma@bio.ku.dk dougwyu@mac.com
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Abstract

Many animals and plants recruit beneficial microbes from the environment, enhancing their defence against pathogens. However, we have only a limited understanding of the assembly mechanisms involved. A game-theoretical concept from economics, screening, potentially explains how a host selectively recruits mutualistic microbes from the environment by fomenting and biasing competition among potential symbionts in such a way that the more likely winners are antibiotic producers. The cuticular microbiomes of Acromyrmex leaf-cutting ants inspired one of the first applications of screening theory, and here we simulate this system in vitro to test screening. On agar infused with antibacterial metabolites from Acromyrmex’s vertically transmitted Pseudonocardia bacteria, we show that antibiotic-producing Streptomyces bacteria exhibit higher growth rates than do non-antibiotic-producer strains and are more likely to win in direct competition. Our results demonstrate how game-theoretical concepts can provide powerful insight into host-microbiome coevolution.

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Posted October 30, 2018.
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Experimental demonstration that screening can enable the environmental recruitment of a defensive microbiome
Tabitha Innocent, Neil Holmes, Mahmoud Al Bassam, Morten Schiøtt, István Scheuring, Barrie Wilkinson, Matthew I Hutchings, Jacobus J Boomsma, Douglas W Yu
bioRxiv 375634; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/375634
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Experimental demonstration that screening can enable the environmental recruitment of a defensive microbiome
Tabitha Innocent, Neil Holmes, Mahmoud Al Bassam, Morten Schiøtt, István Scheuring, Barrie Wilkinson, Matthew I Hutchings, Jacobus J Boomsma, Douglas W Yu
bioRxiv 375634; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/375634

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