Impact of Temporal pH Fluctuations on the Coexistence of Nasal Bacteria in an in silico Community

To manipulate nasal microbiota for respiratory health, we need to better understand how this microbial community is assembled and maintained. Previous work has demonstrated that the pH in the nasal passage experiences temporal fluctuations. Yet, the impact of such pH fluctuations on nasal microbiota...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in microbiology 2021-02, Vol.12, p.613109
Main Authors: Dedrick, Sandra, Akbari, M Javad, Dyckman, Samantha K, Zhao, Nannan, Liu, Yang-Yu, Momeni, Babak
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
community ecology
mathematical model
microbial communities
Microbiology
nasal microbiota
species interaction network
variable environment
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:To manipulate nasal microbiota for respiratory health, we need to better understand how this microbial community is assembled and maintained. Previous work has demonstrated that the pH in the nasal passage experiences temporal fluctuations. Yet, the impact of such pH fluctuations on nasal microbiota is not fully understood. Here, we examine how temporal fluctuations in pH might affect the coexistence of nasal bacteria in communities. We take advantage of the cultivability of nasal bacteria to experimentally assess their responses to pH and the presence of other species. Based on experimentally observed responses, we formulate a mathematical model to numerically investigate the impact of temporal pH fluctuations on species coexistence. We assemble nasal communities using up to 20 strains that resemble the isolates that we have experimentally characterized. We then subject these communities to pH fluctuations and assess how the community composition and coexistence is impacted. Using this model, we then simulate pH fluctuations-varying in amplitude or frequency-to identify conditions that best support species coexistence. We find that the composition of nasal communities is generally robust against pH fluctuations within the expected range of amplitudes and frequencies. Our results also show that cooperative communities and communities with lower niche overlap have significantly lower composition deviations when exposed to temporal pH fluctuations. Overall, our data suggest that nasal microbiota could be robust against environmental fluctuations.
ISSN:1664-302X
1664-302X
DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2021.613109