Theoretical analysis of the cost of antagonistic activity for aquatic bacteria in oligotrophic environments

Many strains of bacteria produce antagonistic substances that restrain the growth of others, and potentially give them a competitive advantage. These substances are commonly released to the surrounding environment, involving metabolic costs in terms of energy and nutrients. The rate at which these m...

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Autores principales: Aguirre-von-Wobeser, Eneas, Eguiarte, Luis E., Souza, Valeria, Soberón-Chávez, Gloria
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4444843/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26074891
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2015.00490
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author Aguirre-von-Wobeser, Eneas
Eguiarte, Luis E.
Souza, Valeria
Soberón-Chávez, Gloria
author_facet Aguirre-von-Wobeser, Eneas
Eguiarte, Luis E.
Souza, Valeria
Soberón-Chávez, Gloria
author_sort Aguirre-von-Wobeser, Eneas
collection PubMed
description Many strains of bacteria produce antagonistic substances that restrain the growth of others, and potentially give them a competitive advantage. These substances are commonly released to the surrounding environment, involving metabolic costs in terms of energy and nutrients. The rate at which these molecules need to be produced to maintain a certain amount of them close to the producing cell before they are diluted into the environment has not been explored so far. To understand the potential cost of production of antagonistic substances in water environments, we used two different theoretical approaches. Using a probabilistic model, we determined the rate at which a cell needs to produce individual molecules in order to keep on average a single molecule in its vicinity at all times. For this minimum protection, a cell would need to invest 3.92 × 10(−22) kg s(−1) of organic matter, which is 9 orders of magnitude lower than the estimated expense for growth. Next, we used a continuous model, based on Fick's laws, to explore the production rate needed to sustain minimum inhibitory concentrations around a cell, which would provide much more protection from competitors. In this scenario, cells would need to invest 1.20 × 10(−11) kg s(−1), which is 2 orders of magnitude higher than the estimated expense for growth, and thus not sustainable. We hypothesize that the production of antimicrobial compounds by bacteria in aquatic environments lies between these two extremes.
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spelling pubmed-44448432015-06-12 Theoretical analysis of the cost of antagonistic activity for aquatic bacteria in oligotrophic environments Aguirre-von-Wobeser, Eneas Eguiarte, Luis E. Souza, Valeria Soberón-Chávez, Gloria Front Microbiol Microbiology Many strains of bacteria produce antagonistic substances that restrain the growth of others, and potentially give them a competitive advantage. These substances are commonly released to the surrounding environment, involving metabolic costs in terms of energy and nutrients. The rate at which these molecules need to be produced to maintain a certain amount of them close to the producing cell before they are diluted into the environment has not been explored so far. To understand the potential cost of production of antagonistic substances in water environments, we used two different theoretical approaches. Using a probabilistic model, we determined the rate at which a cell needs to produce individual molecules in order to keep on average a single molecule in its vicinity at all times. For this minimum protection, a cell would need to invest 3.92 × 10(−22) kg s(−1) of organic matter, which is 9 orders of magnitude lower than the estimated expense for growth. Next, we used a continuous model, based on Fick's laws, to explore the production rate needed to sustain minimum inhibitory concentrations around a cell, which would provide much more protection from competitors. In this scenario, cells would need to invest 1.20 × 10(−11) kg s(−1), which is 2 orders of magnitude higher than the estimated expense for growth, and thus not sustainable. We hypothesize that the production of antimicrobial compounds by bacteria in aquatic environments lies between these two extremes. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-05-27 /pmc/articles/PMC4444843/ /pubmed/26074891 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2015.00490 Text en Copyright © 2015 Aguirre-von-Wobeser, Eguiarte, Souza and Soberón-Chávez. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Aguirre-von-Wobeser, Eneas
Eguiarte, Luis E.
Souza, Valeria
Soberón-Chávez, Gloria
Theoretical analysis of the cost of antagonistic activity for aquatic bacteria in oligotrophic environments
title Theoretical analysis of the cost of antagonistic activity for aquatic bacteria in oligotrophic environments
title_full Theoretical analysis of the cost of antagonistic activity for aquatic bacteria in oligotrophic environments
title_fullStr Theoretical analysis of the cost of antagonistic activity for aquatic bacteria in oligotrophic environments
title_full_unstemmed Theoretical analysis of the cost of antagonistic activity for aquatic bacteria in oligotrophic environments
title_short Theoretical analysis of the cost of antagonistic activity for aquatic bacteria in oligotrophic environments
title_sort theoretical analysis of the cost of antagonistic activity for aquatic bacteria in oligotrophic environments
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4444843/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26074891
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2015.00490
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