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Silverstein MR, Bhatnagar JM, Segrè D. Metabolic complexity drives divergence in microbial communities. Nat Ecol Evol 2024; 8:1493-1504. [PMID: 38956426 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02440-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2023] [Accepted: 05/14/2024] [Indexed: 07/04/2024]
Abstract
Microbial communities are shaped by environmental metabolites, but the principles that govern whether different communities will converge or diverge in any given condition remain unknown, posing fundamental questions about the feasibility of microbiome engineering. Here we studied the longitudinal assembly dynamics of a set of natural microbial communities grown in laboratory conditions of increasing metabolic complexity. We found that different microbial communities tend to become similar to each other when grown in metabolically simple conditions, but they diverge in composition as the metabolic complexity of the environment increases, a phenomenon we refer to as the divergence-complexity effect. A comparative analysis of these communities revealed that this divergence is driven by community diversity and by the assortment of specialist taxa capable of degrading complex metabolites. An ecological model of community dynamics indicates that the hierarchical structure of metabolism itself, where complex molecules are enzymatically degraded into progressively simpler ones that then participate in cross-feeding between community members, is necessary and sufficient to recapitulate our experimental observations. In addition to helping understand the role of the environment in community assembly, the divergence-complexity effect can provide insight into which environments support multiple community states, enabling the search for desired ecosystem functions towards microbiome engineering applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael R Silverstein
- Bioinformatics Program, Faculty of Computing and Data Science, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
- Biological Design Center, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jennifer M Bhatnagar
- Bioinformatics Program, Faculty of Computing and Data Science, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Daniel Segrè
- Bioinformatics Program, Faculty of Computing and Data Science, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
- Biological Design Center, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
- Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
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2
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Bittleston LS. Connecting microbial community assembly and function. Curr Opin Microbiol 2024; 80:102512. [PMID: 39018765 DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2024.102512] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2024] [Revised: 06/07/2024] [Accepted: 06/25/2024] [Indexed: 07/19/2024]
Abstract
Microbial ecology is moving away from purely descriptive analyses to experiments that can determine the underlying mechanisms driving changes in community assembly and function. More species-rich microbial communities generally have higher functional capabilities depending on if there is positive selection of certain species or complementarity among different species. When building synthetic communities or laboratory enrichment cultures, there are specific choices that can increase the number of species able to coexist. Higher resource complexity or the addition of physical niches are two of the many factors leading to greater biodiversity and associated increases in functional capabilities. We can use principles from community ecology and knowledge of microbial physiology to generate improved microbiomes for use in medicine, agriculture, or environmental management.
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Čaušević S, Dubey M, Morales M, Salazar G, Sentchilo V, Carraro N, Ruscheweyh HJ, Sunagawa S, van der Meer JR. Niche availability and competitive loss by facilitation control proliferation of bacterial strains intended for soil microbiome interventions. Nat Commun 2024; 15:2557. [PMID: 38519488 PMCID: PMC10959995 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46933-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2023] [Accepted: 03/13/2024] [Indexed: 03/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Microbiome engineering - the targeted manipulation of microbial communities - is considered a promising strategy to restore ecosystems, but experimental support and mechanistic understanding are required. Here, we show that bacterial inoculants for soil microbiome engineering may fail to establish because they inadvertently facilitate growth of native resident microbiomes. By generating soil microcosms in presence or absence of standardized soil resident communities, we show how different nutrient availabilities limit outgrowth of focal bacterial inoculants (three Pseudomonads), and how this might be improved by adding an artificial, inoculant-selective nutrient niche. Through random paired interaction assays in agarose micro-beads, we demonstrate that, in addition to direct competition, inoculants lose competitiveness by facilitating growth of resident soil bacteria. Metatranscriptomics experiments with toluene as selective nutrient niche for the inoculant Pseudomonas veronii indicate that this facilitation is due to loss and uptake of excreted metabolites by resident taxa. Generation of selective nutrient niches for inoculants may help to favor their proliferation for the duration of their intended action while limiting their competitive loss.
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Affiliation(s)
- Senka Čaušević
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Manupriyam Dubey
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Marian Morales
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Guillem Salazar
- Department of Biology Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 4, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Vladimir Sentchilo
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Nicolas Carraro
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Hans-Joachim Ruscheweyh
- Department of Biology Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 4, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Shinichi Sunagawa
- Department of Biology Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 4, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Jan Roelof van der Meer
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Burz SD, Causevic S, Dal Co A, Dmitrijeva M, Engel P, Garrido-Sanz D, Greub G, Hapfelmeier S, Hardt WD, Hatzimanikatis V, Heiman CM, Herzog MKM, Hockenberry A, Keel C, Keppler A, Lee SJ, Luneau J, Malfertheiner L, Mitri S, Ngyuen B, Oftadeh O, Pacheco AR, Peaudecerf F, Resch G, Ruscheweyh HJ, Sahin A, Sanders IR, Slack E, Sunagawa S, Tackmann J, Tecon R, Ugolini GS, Vacheron J, van der Meer JR, Vayena E, Vonaesch P, Vorholt JA. From microbiome composition to functional engineering, one step at a time. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 2023; 87:e0006323. [PMID: 37947420 PMCID: PMC10732080 DOI: 10.1128/mmbr.00063-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2023] Open
Abstract
SUMMARYCommunities of microorganisms (microbiota) are present in all habitats on Earth and are relevant for agriculture, health, and climate. Deciphering the mechanisms that determine microbiota dynamics and functioning within the context of their respective environments or hosts (the microbiomes) is crucially important. However, the sheer taxonomic, metabolic, functional, and spatial complexity of most microbiomes poses substantial challenges to advancing our knowledge of these mechanisms. While nucleic acid sequencing technologies can chart microbiota composition with high precision, we mostly lack information about the functional roles and interactions of each strain present in a given microbiome. This limits our ability to predict microbiome function in natural habitats and, in the case of dysfunction or dysbiosis, to redirect microbiomes onto stable paths. Here, we will discuss a systematic approach (dubbed the N+1/N-1 concept) to enable step-by-step dissection of microbiome assembly and functioning, as well as intervention procedures to introduce or eliminate one particular microbial strain at a time. The N+1/N-1 concept is informed by natural invasion events and selects culturable, genetically accessible microbes with well-annotated genomes to chart their proliferation or decline within defined synthetic and/or complex natural microbiota. This approach enables harnessing classical microbiological and diversity approaches, as well as omics tools and mathematical modeling to decipher the mechanisms underlying N+1/N-1 microbiota outcomes. Application of this concept further provides stepping stones and benchmarks for microbiome structure and function analyses and more complex microbiome intervention strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Dan Burz
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Senka Causevic
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Alma Dal Co
- Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Marija Dmitrijeva
- Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Philipp Engel
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Daniel Garrido-Sanz
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Gilbert Greub
- Institut de microbiologie, CHUV University Hospital Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | | | | | - Clara Margot Heiman
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | | | - Christoph Keel
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | - Soon-Jae Lee
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Julien Luneau
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Lukas Malfertheiner
- Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Sara Mitri
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Bidong Ngyuen
- Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Omid Oftadeh
- Laboratory of Computational Systems Biotechnology, EPF Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | | | - Grégory Resch
- Center for Research and Innovation in Clinical Pharmaceutical Sciences, CHUV University Hospital Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | - Asli Sahin
- Laboratory of Computational Systems Biotechnology, EPF Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Ian R. Sanders
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Emma Slack
- Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | | | - Janko Tackmann
- Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Robin Tecon
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | - Jordan Vacheron
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | - Evangelia Vayena
- Laboratory of Computational Systems Biotechnology, EPF Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Pascale Vonaesch
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
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Garrido-Sanz D, Čaušević S, Vacheron J, Heiman CM, Sentchilo V, van der Meer JR, Keel C. Changes in structure and assembly of a species-rich soil natural community with contrasting nutrient availability upon establishment of a plant-beneficial Pseudomonas in the wheat rhizosphere. MICROBIOME 2023; 11:214. [PMID: 37770950 PMCID: PMC10540321 DOI: 10.1186/s40168-023-01660-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2023] [Accepted: 08/31/2023] [Indexed: 09/30/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Plant-beneficial bacterial inoculants are of great interest in agriculture as they have the potential to promote plant growth and health. However, the inoculation of the rhizosphere microbiome often results in a suboptimal or transient colonization, which is due to a variety of factors that influence the fate of the inoculant. To better understand the fate of plant-beneficial inoculants in complex rhizosphere microbiomes, composed by hundreds of genotypes and multifactorial selection mechanisms, controlled studies with high-complexity soil microbiomes are needed. RESULTS We analysed early compositional changes in a taxa-rich natural soil bacterial community under both exponential nutrient-rich and stationary nutrient-limited growth conditions (i.e. growing and stable communities, respectively) following inoculation with the plant-beneficial bacterium Pseudomonas protegens in a bulk soil or a wheat rhizosphere environment. P. protegens successfully established under all conditions tested and was more abundant in the rhizosphere of the stable community. Nutrient availability was a major factor driving microbiome composition and structure as well as the underlying assembly processes. While access to nutrients resulted in communities assembled mainly by homogeneous selection, stochastic processes dominated under the nutrient-deprived conditions. We also observed an increased rhizosphere selection effect under nutrient-limited conditions, resulting in a higher number of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) whose relative abundance was enriched. The inoculation with P. protegens produced discrete changes, some of which involved other Pseudomonas. Direct competition between Pseudomonas strains partially failed to replicate the observed differences in the microbiome and pointed to a more complex interaction network. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study show that nutrient availability is a major driving force of microbiome composition, structure and diversity in both the bulk soil and the wheat rhizosphere and determines the assembly processes that govern early microbiome development. The successful establishment of the inoculant was facilitated by the wheat rhizosphere and produced discrete changes among other members of the microbiome. Direct competition between Pseudomonas strains only partially explained the microbiome changes, indicating that indirect interactions or spatial distribution in the rhizosphere or soil interface may be crucial for the survival of certain bacteria. Video Abstract.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Garrido-Sanz
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Senka Čaušević
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jordan Vacheron
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Clara M Heiman
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Vladimir Sentchilo
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jan Roelof van der Meer
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Christoph Keel
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Silverstein M, Bhatnagar JM, Segrè D. Metabolic complexity drives divergence in microbial communities. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.08.03.551516. [PMID: 37577626 PMCID: PMC10418233 DOI: 10.1101/2023.08.03.551516] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/15/2023]
Abstract
Microbial communities are shaped by the metabolites available in their environment, but the principles that govern whether different communities will converge or diverge in any given condition remain unknown, posing fundamental questions about the feasibility of microbiome engineering. To this end, we studied the longitudinal assembly dynamics of a set of natural microbial communities grown in laboratory conditions of increasing metabolic complexity. We found that different microbial communities tend to become similar to each other when grown in metabolically simple conditions, but diverge in composition as the metabolic complexity of the environment increases, a phenomenon we refer to as the divergence-complexity effect. A comparative analysis of these communities revealed that this divergence is driven by community diversity and by the diverse assortment of specialist taxa capable of degrading complex metabolites. An ecological model of community dynamics indicates that the hierarchical structure of metabolism itself, where complex molecules are enzymatically degraded into progressively smaller ones, is necessary and sufficient to recapitulate all of our experimental observations. In addition to pointing to a fundamental principle of community assembly, the divergence-complexity effect has important implications for microbiome engineering applications, as it can provide insight into which environments support multiple community states, enabling the search for desired ecosystem functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Silverstein
- Bioinformatics Program, Boston University, Boston, MA
- Biological Design Center, Boston University, Boston, MA
| | - Jennifer M. Bhatnagar
- Bioinformatics Program, Boston University, Boston, MA
- Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, MA
| | - Daniel Segrè
- Bioinformatics Program, Boston University, Boston, MA
- Biological Design Center, Boston University, Boston, MA
- Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, MA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA
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Fitness-Conditional Genes for Soil Adaptation in the Bioaugmentation Agent Pseudomonas veronii 1YdBTEX2. mSystems 2023; 8:e0117422. [PMID: 36786610 PMCID: PMC10134887 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.01174-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Strain inoculation (bioaugmentation) is a potentially useful technology to provide microbiomes with new functionalities. However, there is limited understanding of the genetic factors contributing to successful establishment of inoculants. This work aimed to characterize the genes implicated in proliferation of the monoaromatic compound-degrading Pseudomonas veronii 1YdBTEX2 in nonsterile polluted soils. We generated two independent mutant libraries by random minitransposon-delivered marker insertion followed by deep sequencing (Tn-seq) with a total of 5.0 × 105 unique insertions. Libraries were grown in multiple successive cycles for up to 50 generations either in batch liquid medium or in two types of soil microcosms with different resident microbial content (sand or silt) in the presence of toluene. Analysis of gene insertion abundances at different time points (passed generations of metapopulation growth), in comparison to proportions at start and to in silico generated randomized insertion distributions, allowed to define ~800 essential genes common to both libraries and ~2,700 genes with conditional fitness effects in either liquid or soil (195 of which resulted in fitness gain). Conditional fitness genes largely overlapped among all growth conditions but affected approximately twice as many functions in liquid than in soil. This indicates soil to be a more promiscuous environment for mutant growth, probably because of additional nutrient availability. Commonly depleted genes covered a wide range of biological functions and metabolic pathways, such as inorganic ion transport, fatty acid metabolism, amino acid biosynthesis, or nucleotide and cofactor metabolism. Only sparse gene sets were uncovered whose insertion caused fitness decrease exclusive for soils, which were different between silt and sand. Despite detectable higher resident bacteria and potential protist predatory counts in silt, we were, therefore, unable to detect any immediately obvious candidate genes affecting P. veronii biological competitiveness. In contrast to liquid growth conditions, mutants inactivating flagella biosynthesis and motility consistently gained strong fitness advantage in soils and displayed higher growth rates than wild type. In conclusion, although many gene functions were found to be important for growth in soils, most of these are not specific as they affect growth in liquid minimal medium more in general. This indicates that P. veronii does not need major metabolic reprogramming for proliferation in soil with accessible carbon and generally favorable growth conditions. IMPORTANCE Restoring damaged microbiomes is still a formidable challenge. Classical widely adopted approaches consist of augmenting communities with pure or mixed cultures in the hope that these display their intended selected properties under in situ conditions. Ecological theory, however, dictates that introduction of a nonresident microbe is unlikely to lead to its successful proliferation in a foreign system such as a soil microbiome. In an effort to study this systematically, we used random transposon insertion scanning to identify genes and possibly, metabolic subsystems, that are crucial for growth and survival of a bacterial inoculant (Pseudomonas veronii) for targeted degradation of monoaromatic compounds in contaminated nonsterile soils. Our results indicate that although many gene functions are important for proliferation in soil, they are general factors for growth and not exclusive for soil. In other words, P. veronii is a generalist that is not a priori hindered by the soil for its proliferation and would make a good bioaugmentation candidate.
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Nerva L, Sandrini M, Moffa L, Velasco R, Balestrini R, Chitarra W. Breeding toward improved ecological plant-microbiome interactions. TRENDS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 27:1134-1143. [PMID: 35803843 DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2022.06.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2022] [Revised: 06/04/2022] [Accepted: 06/09/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Domestication processes, amplified by breeding programs, have allowed the selection of more productive genotypes and more suitable crop lines capable of coping with the changing climate. Notwithstanding these advancements, the impact of plant breeding on the ecology of plant-microbiome interactions has not been adequately considered yet. This includes the possible exploitation of beneficial plant-microbe interactions to develop crops with improved performance and better adaptability to any environmental scenario. Here we discuss the exploitation of customized synthetic microbial communities in agricultural systems to develop more sustainable breeding strategies based on the implementation of multiple interactions between plants and their beneficial associated microorganisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luca Nerva
- Research Centre for Viticulture and Enology, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA-VE), Via XXVIII Aprile 26, 31015 Conegliano, (TV), Italy; National Research Council of Italy - Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (CNR-IPSP), Strada delle Cacce, 73, 10135 Torino (TO), Italy
| | - Marco Sandrini
- Research Centre for Viticulture and Enology, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA-VE), Via XXVIII Aprile 26, 31015 Conegliano, (TV), Italy; University of Udine, Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, Via delle Scienze 206, 33100, Udine, (UD), Italy
| | - Loredana Moffa
- Research Centre for Viticulture and Enology, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA-VE), Via XXVIII Aprile 26, 31015 Conegliano, (TV), Italy; University of Udine, Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, Via delle Scienze 206, 33100, Udine, (UD), Italy
| | - Riccardo Velasco
- Research Centre for Viticulture and Enology, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA-VE), Via XXVIII Aprile 26, 31015 Conegliano, (TV), Italy
| | - Raffaella Balestrini
- National Research Council of Italy - Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (CNR-IPSP), Strada delle Cacce, 73, 10135 Torino (TO), Italy.
| | - Walter Chitarra
- Research Centre for Viticulture and Enology, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA-VE), Via XXVIII Aprile 26, 31015 Conegliano, (TV), Italy; National Research Council of Italy - Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (CNR-IPSP), Strada delle Cacce, 73, 10135 Torino (TO), Italy
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Taylor M, Janasky L, Vega N. Convergent structure with divergent adaptations in combinatorial microbiome communities. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 2022; 98:6726631. [PMID: 36170949 DOI: 10.1093/femsec/fiac115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2022] [Revised: 09/13/2022] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Adaptation of replicate microbial communities frequently produces shared trajectories of community composition and structure. However, divergent adaptation of individual community members can occur and is associated with community-level divergence. The extent to which community-based adaptation of microbes should be convergent when community members are similar but not identical is, therefore, not well-understood. In these experiments, adaptation of combinatorial minimal communities of bacteria with the model host Caenorhabditis elegans produces structurally similar communities over time, but with divergent adaptation of member taxa and differences in community-level resistance to invasion. These results indicate that community-based adaptation from taxonomically similar starting points can produce compositionally similar communities that differ in traits of member taxa and in ecological properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Megan Taylor
- Biology Department, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, United States
| | - Lili Janasky
- Biology Department, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, United States
| | - Nic Vega
- Biology Department, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, United States.,Physics Department, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, United States
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