Competition-based screening secures the evolutionary stability of a defensive microbiome
S. F. Worsley, T. M. Innocent, N. A. Holmes, M. M. Al-Bassam, B. Wilkinson, J. C. Murrell, J. J. Boomsma, D. W. Yu, M. I. Hutchings
The paper shows that competition-based screening by Pseudonocardia symbionts maintains a stable defensive microbiome in Acromyrmex ants by eliminating non-antibiotic-producing microbes.
bioRxiv · Nov 24, 2020Evolutionary Biology