Doran Goldman
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goldmandoran.bsky.social
Doran Goldman
@goldmandoran.bsky.social
970 followers 770 following 13 posts
UW-Madison Microbiology PhD student in the @molabuw.bsky.social, studying phage infection in microbial communities. Microbial ecology & evolution. Fan of birds, books, bacteriophages, and Beckett.
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goldmandoran.bsky.social
Overall, our findings demonstrate that initial conditions can have a lasting impact on the outcomes of species introductions, and that these impacts are especially pronounced in diverse communities.
A graphical abstract titled “Introduced species show stronger, longer-lasting dose dependence when they have high niche overlap with resident species.” Below the title are two rows of images. In the top row from left to right are a culture flask labeled “low community diversity”, a Venn diagram labeled “low niche overlap” with two slightly overlapping circles labeled “species 1” and “species 2”, and a plot titled “weak dose dependence” that shows inoculation dose on the x-axis and relative abundance on the y-axis with two flat lines corresponding to the two species. In the bottom row from left to right are a flask labeled “high community diversity”, a Venn diagram titled “high niche overlap” with strongly overlapping circles, and a plot titled “strong dose dependence” with two relative abundance lines that slope strongly in opposite directions.
March 11, 2025 at 1:22 PM
goldmandoran.bsky.social
Using a consumer-resource model and metabolomics, we identified niche overlap between introduced and resident species as a strong predictor of the importance of initial dose.
A schematic with two rows of images. In the top row on the left are a set of colored bars of different sizes representing the relative resource niche sizes of two species. The bars are mostly non-overlapping and are labeled “low niche overlap, fast equilibration.” On the right is a plot that shows mixture ratio on the x-axis and relative abundance on the y-axis, with a flat line showing a lack of dose dependence for a single species. In the bottom row from left to right are a set of colored bars with greater overlap labeled “high niche overlap, slow equilibration” and a plot showing a sloped line representing stronger dose dependence for a single species.
March 11, 2025 at 1:22 PM
goldmandoran.bsky.social
The answer? It’s complicated, of course, and depends on the identity of the introduced microbes and which species are already present. Across a set of mixtures of gut microbial communities, we observed a range of species colonization behaviors from dose independence to strong dose dependence.
Three plots with mixture ratio on the x-axis and relative abundance on the y-axis. Each plot shows the relative abundance of a single species at passage 0 and 5 after community mixtures. The plot on the left is labeled “strong colonizer” and shows a species whose relative abundance at passage 5 is flat across mixture ratios and above its passage 0 abundance. The plot in the middle is labeled “weak colonizer” and shows a species whose relative abundance is at passage 5 is flat across mixture ratios and lower than its passage 0 abundance. The plot on the right is labeled “dose dependent” and shows a species whose relative abundances at both passages 0 and 5 are sloped across mixture ratios.
March 11, 2025 at 1:22 PM
goldmandoran.bsky.social
To do this, we mixed a set of in vitro gut microbial communities together at various initial ratios ranging over six orders of magnitude, and we used 16S sequencing to track the final relative abundances of each species after ~40 generations of growth.
A schematic representing mixtures of gut microbial communities at different ratios. Two culture flasks labeled “parent 1” and “parent 2” flank a set of vertical red and orange bars labeled with ratios 1000:1, 100:1, 10:1, 1:1, 1:10, 1:100, and 1:1000, with relative heights corresponding to these ratios. There are also solid red and orange bars on either side representing 1:0 and 0:1 ratios, respectively. Above the bars are written the number of replicates (2 for 1:0 and 0:1 ratios and 3 for all other ratios), and below the bars is written passage 5× (~40 generations).
March 11, 2025 at 1:22 PM