Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 29, 2026

Compost Microcosms as Microbially Diverse, Natural-like Environments for Microbiome Research in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: September 13, 2022
Microbial diversity--exploration of natural ecosystems and microbiomes
Sean M Gibbons1, Jack A Gilbert2
1Graduate Program in Biophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA; Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Abstract:
Microorganisms are the pillars of life on Earth. Over billions of years, they have evolved into every conceivable niche on the planet. Microbes reshaped the oceans and atmosphere and gave rise to conditions conducive to multicellular organisms. Only in the past decade have we started to peer deeply into the microbial cosmos, and what we have found is amazing. Microbial ecosystems behave, in many ways, like large-scale ecosystems, although there are important exceptions. We review recent advances in our understanding of how microbial diversity is distributed across environments, how microbes influence the ecosystems in which they live, and how these nano-machines might be harnessed to advance our understanding of the natural world.
Related Concept Videos
Introduction to Microbial Ecology
Methods to Assess Microbial Communities
Introduction to the Human Microbiota
Applications of Molecular Taxonomy
Soil Microbial Ecology
Microenvironments

