ArticleCommunications biology2020
Contingent evolution of alternative metabolic network topologies determines whether cross-feeding evolves.
Article in Communications biology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Phages as Metabolic Switches in Plant-Associated Microbiomes: Implications for Climate-Smart Agriculture.Journal of basic microbiology · 2026Review
- Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2026Review
- Modelling the prebiotic origins of regulation and agency in evolving protocell ecologies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Strengthen or Weaken: Evolutionary Directions of Cross-Feeding After Formation.Environmental microbiology reports · 2025Review
- Baohe pill decoction treats diarrhea induced by high-fat and high-protein diet by regulating lactase-producing bacteria in intestinal mucosa.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Modelling the evolution of novelty: a review.Essays in biochemistry · 2022Article
- Trade-offs predicted by metabolic network structure give rise to evolutionary specialization and phenotypic diversification.Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
- Ratio of Electron Donor to Acceptor Influences Metabolic Specialization and Denitrification Dynamics inFrontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
- Energy Availability Determines Strategy of Microbial Amino Acid Synthesis in Volatile Fatty Acid-Fed Anaerobic Methanogenic Chemostats.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Metabolic exchange is widespread in natural microbial communities and an important driver of ecosystem structure and diversity, yet it remains unclear what determines whether microbes evolve division of labor or maintain metabolic autonomy. Here we use a mechanistic model to study how metabolic strategies evolve in a constant, one resource environment, when metabolic networks are allowed to freely evolve. We find that initially identical ancestral communities of digital organisms follow different evolutionary trajectories, as some communities become dominated by a single, autonomous lineage, while others are formed by stably coexisting lineages that cross-feed on essential building blocks. Our results show how without presupposed cellular trade-offs or external drivers such as temporal niches, diverse metabolic strategies spontaneously emerge from the interplay between ecology, spatial structure, and metabolic constraints that arise during the evolution of metabolic networks. Thus, in the long term, whether microbes remain autonomous or evolve metabolic division of labour is an evolutionary contingency.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.