时间旅行的病原体及其对生态社区的风险
Giovanni Strona1,2, Corey J A Bradshaw3,4, Pedro Cardoso5
1European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Directorate D-Sustainable Resources, Ispra, Italy.
PLoS computational biology
|July 27, 2023
概括
来自永久土解的古老微生物存在入侵风险. 模拟入侵表明这些古老的病原体可以生存,进化,并不可预测地改变现代微生物群落,突出显示生态威胁.
科学领域:
- 微生物学 微生物学
- 生态生态学 生态生态学
- 人工生命的人工生命
背景情况:
- 永久土融化释放着古老的微生物,对现代生态系统和人类健康构成潜在的生物入侵风险.
- 由于数据有限,这些古老的"时间旅行"病原体在当代社区的建立和影响仍然不太清楚.
研究的目的:
- 量化与古代类似病毒的病原体侵入现代人工生命社区相关的生态风险.
- 评估这些模拟入侵对宿主细菌群落多样性和组成的影响.
主要方法:
- 数字病毒类病原体从模拟的古代共同进化的人工生命社区中分离出来.
- 这些古老的病原体模拟入侵了人工宿主社区的未来状态.
- 对宿主社区多样性的影响与对照组进行了比较 (没有入侵和当代病原体入侵).
主要成果:
- 侵入的古代病原体经常在模拟的宿主社区中生存和进化.
- 在很少的病例中 (3.1%),入侵者变得异常占主导地位.
- 虽然通常影响微不足道,但入侵者在1.1%的模拟中不可预测地导致宿主物种丰富度的重大损失或增长.
结论:
- 永久土融化所释放的古老微生物代表着一个有形的,尽管不可预测的,生态威胁.
- 即使是这些古代入侵者的罕见爆发事件也可以显著改变微生物社区结构和多样性.
- 这些发现表明",时间旅行"的病原体可能是生态变化的强大,被低估的驱动因素.
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