Niche overlap is a predictor of the interspecies correlations detected by microbial network analysis in soil micro-aggregates

PurposeGiven the vast microorganisms and infertile resources in the soil, nutritional resources would be a focal point of bacterial competition. Microbes could quickly capture the nutrition to outcompete their competitors or efficiently cross-feed to cooperate with other bacterial species. However, how interspecies trophic patterns shape the bacterial interactions in the co-occurrence network remains unclear. This study investigates the role of trophic patterns, containing niche overlap and nestedness, on the bacterial relationships in the co-occurrence network structure.Materials and methodsWe assessed the correlation between bacterial interactions and trophic patterns according to high-throughput techniques and culturomics. A co-occurrence network was constructed to obtain the relationship of OTUs. The substrate consumption patterns of culturable bacteria were used to calculate the interspecies trophic patterns.Results and discussionThe co-occurrence network was constructed by the thirty-three culturable bacteria that matched 33 OTUs with 112 links in total. The negative correlation pairs possessed a higher niche overlap than the positive correlations pairs. However, negative and positive correlation pairs displayed no significant differences in the niche nestedness. Interestingly, we found substrate types could also influence microbial interactions. Elucidating the association between the trophic patterns and interspecies interaction is crucial for comprehending the resource’s role and contribution to the microbial community.ConclusionTogether, these findings indicate that interspecies trophic patterns, such as niche overlap, could be a predictor to understand the bacterial relationships in the co-occurrence network.