Work

Detecting (the Absence of) Species Interactions in Microbial Ecological Systems

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Microbial communities are complex ecological systems of organisms that evolve in time, with new variants created, while others disappear. Understanding how species interact within communities can help us shed light into the mechanisms that drive ecosystem processes. We studied systems with serial propagation, where the community is kept alive by taking a subsample at regular intervals and replating it in fresh medium. The data that are usually collected consist of the % of the population for each of the species, at several time points. In order to utilize this type of data, we formulated a system of equations (based on the generalized Lotka-Volterra model) and derived conditions of species noninteraction. This was possible to achieve by reformulating the problem as a problem of finding feasibility domains, which can be solved by a number of efficient algorithms. This methodology provides a cost-effective way to investigate interactions in microbial communities.

Source: Studies in Applied Mathematics

DOI: 10.1111/sapm.70009

Authors: Thomas Beardsley, Megan Behringer, Natalia L. Komarova

Institutions: University of California, Irvine, Vanderbilt University, University of California San Diego

Language: English

Topic: Mathematical and Theoretical Epidemiology and Ecology Models

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Award: G1709079031