Hidden Allee effect in photosynthetic organisms

In ecology and population biology, logistic equation is widely applied for simulating the population of organisms. By combining the logistic model with the low-density effect called Allee effect, several variations of mathematical expressions have been proposed. The upper half of the work was dedicated to establish a novel equation for highly flexible density effect model with Allee threshold. Allee effect has been rarely observed in microorganisms with asexual reproduction despite of theoretical studies. According to the exploitation ecosystem hypotheses, plants are believed to be insensitive to Allee effect. Taken together, knowledge on the existence of low-density effect in photosynthetic microorganisms is required for redefining the ecological theories emphasizing the photosynthetic organisms as the basis for food chains. Therefore, in the lower half of the present article, we report on the possible Allee effect in photo-autotrophic organisms, namely, green paramecia, and cyanobacteria. Optically monitored growth of green paramecia was shown to be regulated by Allee-like weak low-density effect under photo-autotrophic and photo-heterotrophic conditions. Insensitiveness of wild type cyanobacteria (Synechocystis sp. Strain PCC6803) to low-density effect was confirmed, as consistent with our empirical knowledge. In contrast, a mutant line of PCC6803 impaired with a photosynthesis-related pxcA gene was shown to be sensitive to typical Allee’s low-density effect (i.e. this line of cells failed to propagate at low cellular density while cells start logarithmic growth at relatively higher inoculating density). This is the first observation that single-gene mutation in an autotrophic organism alters the sensitivity to Allee effect.