ArticleNature ecology & evolution2021
Polarization of microbial communities between competitive and cooperative metabolism.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 144 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
144 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A human gut metagenome-assembled genome catalogue spanning 41 countries supports genome-scale metabolic models.Nature microbiology · 2026Pooled it
- Harnessing plant-microbe interactions: strategies for enhancing resilience and nutrient acquisition for sustainable agriculture.Frontiers in plant science · 2025Pooled it
- Trial
- Genome-scale metabolic models predict diet- and lifestyle-driven shifts of ecological interactions in the gut microbiome.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- How the social lives of bacteria affect their pangenome.Essays in biochemistry · 2026Review
- Article
- Simultaneous optimization of lignocellulosic sugar catabolism via systematic laboratory evolution under complex selection pressure.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Quartet: Disentangling positive and negative components of microbial interactions.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Functional and ecological drivers of bacterial interactions in glacier-fed stream biofilms.mSystems · 2026Article
- Interspecies interactions drive bacterial proteome reorganization and emergent metabolism.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Cooperative traits maintain bacterial niche breadth.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Plant-Associated Microbiomes: Crosstalk and Engineering to Improve Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE) in Crops of Global Importance.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Ecological Frameworks of Pathogen-Pathogen and Pathogen-Microbiome Interactions Within the Tick Holobiont.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Multi-omics revealed the effects of rumen to blood path on early lactation performance in transition dairy cows.Microbiome · 2026Article
- Assessing the Ecological Roles of Resistomes within Microbial Communities in Antibiotic-contaminated Ecosystems.Microbial ecology · 2026Review
- Bacterial metabolic remodeling by convergent evolution unlocks nutrient availability after a host switch.Science advances · 2026Article
- Analysis of Microbial Interactions During the Production of Chinese Ethnic Fermented Foods.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Single-cell assembled genomes predict enhanced bacterial metabolic cross-feeding potential in carbon-enriched soils.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Microbiome assembly statistics toward ecosystem-scale insights, forecasting, and management.The ISME journal · 2026Review
- Competition between resident rhizosphere bacteria enhances phytopathogen suppression via emergent antagonism.The ISME journal · 2026Article
84 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Resource competition and metabolic cross-feeding are among the main drivers of microbial community assembly. Yet the degree to which these two conflicting forces are reflected in the composition of natural communities has not been systematically investigated. Here, we use genome-scale metabolic modelling to assess the potential for resource competition and metabolic cooperation in large co-occurring groups (up to 40 members) across thousands of habitats. Our analysis reveals two distinct community types, which are clustered at opposite ends of a spectrum in a trade-off between competition and cooperation. At one end are highly cooperative communities, characterized by smaller genomes and multiple auxotrophies. At the other end are highly competitive communities, which feature larger genomes and overlapping nutritional requirements, and harbour more genes related to antimicrobial activity. The latter are mainly present in soils, whereas the former are found in both free-living and host-associated habitats. Community-scale flux simulations show that, whereas competitive communities can better resist species invasion but not nutrient shift, cooperative communities are susceptible to species invasion but resilient to nutrient change. We also show, by analysing an additional data set, that colonization by probiotic species is positively associated with the presence of cooperative species in the recipient microbiome. Together, our results highlight the bifurcation between competitive and cooperative metabolism in the assembly of natural communities and its implications for community modulation.
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