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Dispersal of species is a fundamental ecological process in the evolution andmaintenance of biodiversity. Limited control over ecological parameters hashindered progress in understanding of what enables species to colonise newarea, as well as the importance of inter-species interactions. Such control isnecessary to construct reliable mathematical models of ecosystems. In our work,we studied dispersal in the context of bacterial range expansions andidentified the major determinants of species coexistence for a bacterial modelsystem of three Escherichia coli strains (toxin producing, sensitive, andresistant). Genetic engineering allowed us to tune strain growth rates and todesign different ecological scenarios (cyclic and hierarchical). We found thatcoexistence of all strains depended on three strongly interdependent factors:composition of inoculum, relative strain growth rates, and effective toxinrange. Robust agreement between our experiments and a thoroughly calibratedcomputational model enabled us to extrapolate these intricate interdependenciesin terms of phenomenological biodiversity laws. Our mathematical analysis alsosuggested that cyclic dominance between strains is not a prerequisite forcoexistence in competitive range expansions. Instead, robust three-straincoexistence required a balance between growth rates and either a reducedinitial ratio of the toxin-producing strain, or a sufficiently short toxinrange.

Chemical warfare and survival strategies in bacterial range expansions