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Metabolically cohesive microbial consortia and ecosystem functioning.

Alberto Pascual-García1, Sebastian Bonhoeffer1, Thomas Bell2

  • 1Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences
|March 24, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Microbial communities (MCs) often show species coexistence due to resource competition and metabolic by-products. Researchers propose "Metabolically Cohesive Consortia" (MeCoCos) as a key organizational level influencing microbial ecology and ecosystem function.

Keywords:
ecosystem functioningfunctional groupsmetabolismmicrobial ecology

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Area of Science:

  • Microbial Ecology
  • Systems Biology
  • Evolutionary Biology

Background:

  • Microbial communities (MCs) exhibit stable species coexistence under controlled conditions.
  • Metabolic complementarity and resource competition are key drivers of MC stability.
  • By-products of microbial metabolism can serve as resources, influencing community dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose a new organizational level in microbial communities: Metabolically Cohesive Consortia (MeCoCos).
  • To explore the environmental factors driving MeCoCo formation.
  • To investigate the ecological and evolutionary consequences of MeCoCos.

Main Methods:

  • Theoretical modeling of microbial interactions.
  • Analysis of experimental data on microbial community assembly.
  • Literature review on metabolic interactions and community stability.

Main Results:

  • Identification of discrete consortia formed by tightly linked metabolic interactions.
  • Hypothesized environmental conditions favoring MeCoCo formation.
  • Discussion of the potential of MeCoCos to link species, community, and ecosystem properties.

Conclusions:

  • MeCoCos represent a significant organizational level within microbial communities.
  • Recognizing MeCoCos can enhance understanding of microbial ecology and evolution.
  • The concept of MeCoCos offers improved predictability of ecosystem functioning.