Resource diversity and supply drive colonization resistance

Abstract

The human microbiota plays a key role in resisting the colonization of pathogenic microbes, a process known as colonization resistance. However, there is a need to better understand the mechanisms by which colonization of invaders is blocked. Environmental resource supply and resource diversity are essential factors in forming these communities but testing how the environment affects resistance in natural communities is challenging. Here we use a consumer-resource model and computational invasion simulations to investigate how environmental resource diversity and supply affect the richness-resistance relationship, overall colonization resistance, and cross-feeding dynamics. We find a non-monotonic trend between species richness and resistance, shaped by environmental characteristics. Our results show that colonization resistance is negatively correlated with both resource supply and resource diversity except when resource supply is limited. Lastly, we observe that cross-feeding weakens colonization resistance by increasing the diversity of available resources, but this trend disappears with limited resource supply. This work provides insights about colonization resistance in microbial communities of consumers, resources, and resource conversion and exchange.