OLM 9.2. Coexistence of two E. coli strains on a mixture of two resources
„Size doesn't matter” (Feldgarden et al. 2003). Microbial examples are often presented in TBE because of their elegance and simplicity. Experimental results in microbial lab systems tend to be accurate, repeatable and general. This is why these systems provide deep insights into the mechanisms shaping the behaviour of populations and the composition of communities (Jessup et al. 2004). The case of the Lac operon mutants of E. coli competing for substitutable sugar resources introduced in Ch9.2.2 (p.180) will be presented in more detail here. These series of model-based experiments are probably the best experimental studies on the robustness of coexistence of competing reproductive units thus far.