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Updated: Jan 18, 2026
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Compost Microcosms as Microbially Diverse, Natural-like Environments for Microbiome Research in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: September 13, 2022
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Community conservatism is widespread across microbial phyla and environments
Lukas Malfertheiner1, Janko Tackmann1, João Frederico Matias Rodrigues1
1Department of Molecular Life Sciences and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Nature Ecology & Evolution
|January 16, 2026
Summary
Closely related microbial species often inhabit similar ecological niches, a phenomenon termed community conservatism. This global pattern, observed across diverse environments and microbial groups, advances understanding of microbial evolution and community assembly.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Evolutionary Biology
- Ecology
Background:
- Phylogenetic signal and niche conservatism are established concepts in animals and plants, explaining evolutionary relatedness and ecological similarity.
- Assessing these concepts in microorganisms is challenging due to their unique characteristics and vast diversity.
- Understanding microbial ecological similarity is crucial for fields like evolution, speciation, and community assembly.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the hypothesis that closely related microbial species inhabit similar ecological niches.
- To introduce and define the concept of 'community conservatism' for microorganisms.
- To assess the prevalence and extent of community conservatism across microbial life.
Main Methods:
- Leveraged a large database containing millions of microbial samples and hundreds of thousands of microorganism pairs.
- Analyzed the relatedness of microbial species and the similarity of their occupied community compositions.
- Examined community conservatism across various environments, microbial phyla, and taxonomic ranks.
Main Results:
- Community conservatism is a widespread phenomenon observable globally in microorganisms.
- The extent of community conservatism varies across different environments, phyla, and taxonomic levels.
- Findings support the ecological similarity of closely related microbial species.
Conclusions:
- Community conservatism is a significant factor in microbial evolution and speciation.
- This concept offers new insights into the mechanisms governing microbial community assembly.
- Community conservatism can be integrated with ecological data for improved operational taxonomic unit delimitation.
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