Title
Competition in a Chemostat with Wall Attachment
Abstract
A mathematical model of microbial competition for limiting nutrient and wall-attachment sites in a chemostat, formulated by Freter et al. in their study of the colonization resistance phenomena associated with the gut micro ora, is mathematically analyzed. The model assumes that resident and invader bacterial strains can colonize the fluid environment of the vessel as well as its bounding surface, competing for a limited number of attachment sites on the latter. Although conditions for coexistence of the two strains are of interest, and are provided by some of our results, two bistable scenarios are of more relevance to the colonization resistance phenomena. In one case, each bacterial strain's single-population equilibrium, is stable against invasion by the other strain and there exists an unstable coexistence equilibrium, while in the second case the resident strain equilibrium is stable against invasion by the invader and yet a locally attracting coexistence equilibrium exists. Both scenarios imply that a threshold dose of invader is required to colonize the chemostat. Our analysis consists of finding equilibria, determining their stability properties, and establishing the persistence or extinction of the various strains.
Year
DOI
Venue
2000
10.1137/S0036139999358131
SIAM JOURNAL ON APPLIED MATHEMATICS
Keywords
Field
DocType
chemostat,competition for wall-attachment sites,colonization resistance,uniform persistence
Colonisation resistance,Chemostat,Strain (chemistry),Bistability,Biological system,Mathematical analysis,Gut microflora,Mathematics,Limiting
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
61
2
0036-1399
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.47
0
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Eric D. Stemmons120.47
Hal L. Smith211131.87