An eco-evolutionary consumer-resource theory of host-microbe symbioses
Abstract
Symbiotic associations between microorganisms and hosts are universal, diverse, and dynamic. Yet, our ability to represent this complexity mathematically remains limited. We propose extending consumer–resource theory to incorporate evolutionary processes to advance our understanding of symbioses, from pairwise interactions to complex host–microbe assemblages. The resulting eco-evolutionary framework captures feedbacks between host–microbe interaction structure, biotic resource availability, and selection acting across biological scales. Importantly, this approach relaxes the assumption of separated ecological and evolutionary timescales, so that both processes unfold simultaneously. The coupling between ecological and evolutionary dynamics allows key properties of symbioses, such as ecological dependence and functional integration, to emerge from evolving resource-mediated interactions, rather than being imposed a priori. We illustrate the framework with a mathematical model of mycorrhizal symbiosis. The proposed consumer–resource formulation provides a unified basis for linking ecological and evolutionary dynamics in host–microbe symbioses, with implications for both basic theory and applied management.
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BibTeX
@article{martignoni2026ecoevolutionary,
title = {{An eco-evolutionary consumer-resource theory of host-microbe symbioses}},
author = {Maria Martignoni and Seth Bordenstein and Canan Karakoç and Rebecca Tyson and Sam Brown and Jimmy Garnier},
journal = {Journal of Evolutionary Biology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1093/jeb/voag100},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05793827v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - An eco-evolutionary consumer-resource theory of host-microbe symbioses
AU - Maria Martignoni
AU - Seth Bordenstein
AU - Canan Karakoç
AU - Rebecca Tyson
AU - Sam Brown
AU - Jimmy Garnier
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
JO - Journal of Evolutionary Biology
DO - 10.1093/jeb/voag100
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05793827v1
AB - Symbiotic associations between microorganisms and hosts are universal, diverse, and dynamic. Yet, our ability to represent this complexity mathematically remains limited. We propose extending consumer–resource theory to incorporate evolutionary processes to advance our understanding of symbioses, from pairwise interactions to complex host–microbe assemblages. The resulting eco-evolutionary framework captures feedbacks between host–microbe interaction structure, biotic resource availability, and selection acting across biological scales. Importantly, this approach relaxes the assumption of separated ecological and evolutionary timescales, so that both processes unfold simultaneously. The coupling between ecological and evolutionary dynamics allows key properties of symbioses, such as ecological dependence and functional integration, to emerge from evolving resource-mediated interactions, rather than being imposed a priori. We illustrate the framework with a mathematical model of mycorrhizal symbiosis. The proposed consumer–resource formulation provides a unified basis for linking ecological and evolutionary dynamics in host–microbe symbioses, with implications for both basic theory and applied management.
SN - 1010-061X
SN - 1420-9101
ER -