4.8 Article

Ecological selection of siderophore-producing microbial taxa in response to heavy metal contamination

Journal

ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 21, Issue 1, Pages 117-127

Publisher

WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/ele.12878

Keywords

Adaptation; detoxification; ecological species sorting; evolution; metal tolerance; public good dynamics; remediation; selection

Categories

Funding

  1. AXA Research Fund
  2. BBSRC research council [BB/K003240]
  3. NERC research council [NE/P001130]
  4. Bridging the Gaps award
  5. University of Exeter
  6. Horizon Framework Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant [656647]
  7. Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowships within the EU Seventh Framework Programme
  8. Royal Society
  9. BBSRC [BB/K003240/1, BB/K003240/2] Funding Source: UKRI
  10. NERC [NE/P003214/1, NE/P001130/1] Funding Source: UKRI
  11. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/K003240/2, BB/K003240/1] Funding Source: researchfish
  12. Natural Environment Research Council [NE/P001130/1, NE/P003214/1] Funding Source: researchfish

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Some microbial public goods can provide both individual and community-wide benefits, and are open to exploitation by non-producing species. One such example is the production of metal-detoxifying siderophores. Here, we investigate whether conflicting selection pressures on siderophore production by heavy metals - a detoxifying effect of siderophores, and exploitation of this detoxifying effect - result in a net increase or decrease. We show that the proportion of siderophore-producing taxa increases along a natural heavy metal gradient. A causal link between metal contamination and siderophore production was subsequently demonstrated in a microcosm experiment in compost, in which we observed changes in community composition towards taxa that produce relatively more siderophores following copper contamination. We confirmed the selective benefit of siderophores by showing that taxa producing large amounts of siderophore suffered less growth inhibition in toxic copper. Our results suggest that ecological selection will favour siderophore-mediated decontamination, with important consequences for potential remediation strategies.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.8
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available