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Multi-stability and the origin of microbial community types
Didier Gonze1, Leo Lahti2,3,4, Jeroen Raes2,3
1Department of Chemistry, Unité de Chronobiologie Théorique, Faculté des Sciences CP 231, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bvd du Triomphe, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium.
The ISME Journal
|May 6, 2017
Summary
Microbial communities can exist in distinct types, potentially explained by environmental shifts, member interactions, or multi-stability. This study highlights multi-stability as a key factor in generating diverse microbial communities under identical conditions.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Ecology
- Theoretical Biology
Background:
- Host-associated microbial communities often exhibit distinct community types.
- Existing explanations include environmental change responses and metacommunity interactions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore multi-stability as a third mechanism explaining alternative microbial community types.
- To illustrate how multi-stability can generate distinct community types.
- To discuss the implications of multi-stability for interpreting microbial community data.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual discussion of microbial community assembly mechanisms.
- Illustration using a toy model to demonstrate multi-stability.
- Analysis of the consequences of multi-stability for data interpretation.
Main Results:
- Multi-stability provides a framework for understanding alternative community types under uniform environmental conditions.
- A toy model demonstrates the generation of distinct community types through multi-stability.
- Identified potential challenges in data interpretation due to multi-stability.
Conclusions:
- Multi-stability is a significant factor in microbial community ecology.
- Recognizing multi-stability is crucial for accurate interpretation of host-associated microbial data.
- Further research into multi-stability can refine our understanding of microbial community dynamics.
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