Competitive exclusion in the gut microbiome means a well-established, resource-efficient bacterial population can physically and chemically crowd out an invading pathogen simply by occupying the niche first.
exclusion event when probiotic & pathogen distance < contact radius, P ~ exclusionRate
- Probiotic cells — engineered beneficial bacteria introduced to occupy gut niche space and produce inhibitory compounds.
- Pathogen cells — resident or invading pathogenic bacteria competing for the same nutrients and attachment sites.
- Competitive exclusion rate — how effectively the probiotic strain outcompetes or directly inhibits a pathogen on contact.
- Growth/replication speed — how fast both populations replicate and repopulate the niche between contacts.
Engineered probiotics designed to competitively exclude C. difficile or pathogenic E. coli are an active biotech strategy for treating gut infections without the collateral damage of broad-spectrum antibiotics.