scholarly journals Stochastic Assembly Leads to Alternative Communities with Distinct Functions in a Bioreactor Microbial Community

mBio ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jizhong Zhou ◽  
Wenzong Liu ◽  
Ye Deng ◽  
Yi-Huei Jiang ◽  
Kai Xue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Diversity ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Microbial Biodiversity ◽  
Stochastic Assembly

ABSTRACTThe processes and mechanisms of community assembly and its relationships to community functioning are central issues in ecology. Both deterministic and stochastic factors play important roles in shaping community composition and structure, but the connection between community assembly and ecosystem functioning remains elusive, especially in microbial communities. Here, we used microbial electrolysis cell reactors as a model system to examine the roles of stochastic assembly in determining microbial community structure and functions. Under identical environmental conditions with the same source community, ecological drift (i.e., initial stochastic colonization) and subsequent biotic interactions created dramatically different communities with little overlap among 14 identical reactors, indicating that stochastic assembly played dominant roles in determining microbial community structure. Neutral community modeling analysis revealed that deterministic factors also played significant roles in shaping microbial community structure in these reactors. Most importantly, the newly formed communities differed substantially in community functions (e.g., H2production), which showed strong linkages to community structure. This study is the first to demonstrate that stochastic assembly plays a dominant role in determining not only community structure but also ecosystem functions. Elucidating the links among community assembly, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning is critical to understanding ecosystem functioning, biodiversity preservation, and ecosystem management.IMPORTANCEMicroorganisms are the most diverse group of life known on earth. Although it is well documented that microbial natural biodiversity is extremely high, it is not clear why such high diversity is generated and maintained. Numerous studies have established the roles of niche-based deterministic factors (e.g., pH, temperature, and salt) in shaping microbial biodiversity, the importance of stochastic processes in generating microbial biodiversity is rarely appreciated. Moreover, while microorganisms mediate many ecosystem processes, the relationship between microbial diversity and ecosystem functioning remains largely elusive. Using a well-controlled laboratory system, this study provides empirical support for the dominant role of stochastic assembly in creating variations of microbial diversity and the first explicit evidence for the critical role of community assembly in influencing ecosystem functioning. The results presented in this study represent important contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms, especially stochastic processes, involved in shaping microbial biodiversity.

scholarly journals Microbial community structure in the western tropical South Pacific

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 3909-3925 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Bock ◽  
France Van Wambeke ◽  
Moïra Dion ◽  
Solange Duhamel
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
N2 Fixation ◽  
Phytoplankton Biomass ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Bottom Up

Abstract. Oligotrophic regions play a central role in global biogeochemical cycles, with microbial communities in these areas representing an important term in global carbon budgets. While the general structure of microbial communities has been well documented in the global ocean, some remote regions such as the western tropical South Pacific (WTSP) remain fundamentally unexplored. Moreover, the biotic and abiotic factors constraining microbial abundances and distribution remain not well resolved. In this study, we quantified the spatial (vertical and horizontal) distribution of major microbial plankton groups along a transect through the WTSP during the austral summer of 2015, capturing important autotrophic and heterotrophic assemblages including cytometrically determined abundances of non-pigmented protists (also called flagellates). Using environmental parameters (e.g., nutrients and light availability) as well as statistical analyses, we estimated the role of bottom–up and top–down controls in constraining the structure of the WTSP microbial communities in biogeochemically distinct regions. At the most general level, we found a “typical tropical structure”, characterized by a shallow mixed layer, a clear deep chlorophyll maximum at all sampling sites, and a deep nitracline. Prochlorococcus was especially abundant along the transect, accounting for 68 ± 10.6 % of depth-integrated phytoplankton biomass. Despite their relatively low abundances, picophytoeukaryotes (PPE) accounted for up to 26 ± 11.6 % of depth-integrated phytoplankton biomass, while Synechococcus accounted for only 6 ± 6.9 %. Our results show that the microbial community structure of the WTSP is typical of highly stratified regions, and underline the significant contribution to total biomass by PPE populations. Strong relationships between N2 fixation rates and plankton abundances demonstrate the central role of N2 fixation in regulating ecosystem processes in the WTSP, while comparative analyses of abundance data suggest microbial community structure to be increasingly regulated by bottom–up processes under nutrient limitation, possibly in response to shifts in abundances of high nucleic acid bacteria (HNA).

scholarly journals Deterministic processes dominate soil microbial community assembly in subalpine coniferous forests on the Loess Plateau

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengyu Zhao ◽  
Jiabing Bao ◽  
Xue Wang ◽  
Yi Liu ◽  
Cui Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Soil Microbial Community ◽  
Coniferous Forests ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Deterministic Processes ◽  
Microbial Community Assembly

Microbial community assembly is influenced by a continuum (actually the trade-off) between deterministic and stochastic processes. An understanding of this ecological continuum is of great significance for drawing inferences about the effects of community assembly processes on microbial community structure and function. Here, we investigated the driving forces of soil microbial community assembly in three different environmental contexts located on subalpine coniferous forests of the Loess Plateau in Shanxi, China. The variation in null deviations and phylogenetic analysis showed that a continuum existed between deterministic and stochastic processes in shaping the microbial community structure, but deterministic processes prevailed. By integrating the results of redundancy analysis (RDA), multiple regression tree (MRT) analysis and correlation analysis, we found that soil organic carbon (SOC) was the main driver of the community structure and diversity patterns. In addition, we also found that SOC had a great influence on the community assembly processes. In conclusion, our results show that deterministic processes always dominated assembly processes in shaping bacterial community structure along the three habitat contexts.

scholarly journals Assessment of microbial communities in Nakivubo wetland and its catchment areas in Lake Victoria Basin, Uganda

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard N. Kanoi ◽  
Maribet Gamboa ◽  
Doris Ngonzi ◽  
Thomas G. Egwang
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Diversity ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Rrna Gene ◽  
Lake Victoria Basin ◽  
Structure Changes ◽  
Catchment Areas ◽  
Polluted Sites

AbstractMicrobial community structure changes are key in detecting and characterizing the impacts of anthropogenic activities on aquatic ecosystems. Here, we evaluated the effect of river pollution of industrial and urban sites on the microbial community composition and distribution in the Nakivubo wetland and its catchment areas in Lake Victoria basin, Uganda. Samples were collected from two industrial and one urban polluted sites and the microbial diversity was analyzed based on a 16S rRNA gene clone library. Differences in microbial diversity and community structure were observed at different sampling points. Bacteria associated with bioremediation were found in sites receiving industrial waste, while a low proportion of important human-pathogenic bacteria were seen in urban polluted sites. While Escherichia spp. was the most dominant genus of bacteria for all sites, three unique bacteria, Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas sp., Thermomonas sp., which have been reported to transform contaminants such as heavy metals and hydrocarbons (such as oils) by their metabolic pathways were also identified. Our results may serve as a basis for further studies assessing microbial community structure changes among polluted sites at Nakivubo Water Channel for management and monitoring. The diversity of natural microbial consortia could also be a rich bioprospecting resource for novel industrial enzymes, medicinal and bioactive compounds.

scholarly journals Multistage A-O Activated Sludge Process for Paraformaldehyde Wastewater Treatment and Microbial Community Structure Analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danyang Zheng ◽  
Yujiao Sun ◽  
Huijuan Li ◽  
Sidan Lu ◽  
Mingjun Shan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Activated Sludge ◽  
Microbial Diversity ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Diversity Index ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Activated Sludge Process ◽  
Degrading Bacteria

In recent years, the effect of formaldehyde on microorganisms and body had become a global public health issue. The multistage combination of anaerobic and aerobic process was adopted to treat paraformaldehyde wastewater. Microbial community structure in different reaction stages was analyzed through high-throughput sequencing. Results showed that multistage A-O activated sludge process positively influenced polyformaldehyde wastewater. The removal rates of formaldehyde were basically stable at more than 99% and those of COD were about 89%. Analysis of the microbial diversity index indicated that the microbial diversity of the reactor was high, and the treatment effect was good. Moreover, microbial community had certain similarity in the same system. Microbial communities in different units also showed typical representative characteristics affected by working conditions and influent concentrations. Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes were the dominant fungal genera in the phylum level of community composition. As to family and genus levels, Peptostreptococcaceae was distributed at various stages and the dominant in this system. This bacterium also played an important role in organic matter removal, particularly decomposition of the acidified middle metabolites. In addition, Rhodobacteraceae and Rhodocyclaceae were the formaldehyde-degrading bacteria found in the reactor.

scholarly journals Ecological Assembly Processes Are Coordinated between Bacterial and Viral Communities in Fractured Shale Ecosystems

mSystems ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. Danczak ◽  
R. A. Daly ◽  
M. A. Borton ◽  
J. C. Stegen ◽  
S. Roux ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Deep Subsurface ◽  
Ecological Dynamics ◽  
Selective Pressures ◽  
Viral Community ◽  
Viral Communities

ABSTRACT The ecological drivers that concurrently act upon both a virus and its host and that drive community assembly are poorly understood despite known interactions between viral populations and their microbial hosts. Hydraulically fractured shale environments provide access to a closed ecosystem in the deep subsurface where constrained microbial and viral community assembly processes can be examined. Here, we used metagenomic analyses of time-resolved-produced fluid samples from two wells in the Appalachian Basin to track viral and host dynamics and to investigate community assembly processes. Hypersaline conditions within these ecosystems should drive microbial community structure to a similar configuration through time in response to common osmotic stress. However, viral predation appears to counterbalance this potentially strong homogeneous selection and pushes the microbial community toward undominated assembly. In comparison, while the viral community was also influenced by substantial undominated processes, it assembled, in part, due to homogeneous selection. When the overall assembly processes acting upon both these communities were directly compared with each other, a significant relationship was revealed, suggesting an association between microbial and viral community development despite differing selective pressures. These results reveal a potentially important balance of ecological dynamics that must be in maintained within this deep subsurface ecosystem in order for the microbial community to persist over extended time periods. More broadly, this relationship begins to provide knowledge underlying metacommunity development across trophic levels. IMPORTANCE Interactions between viral communities and their microbial hosts have been the subject of many recent studies in a wide range of ecosystems. The degree of coordination between ecological assembly processes influencing viral and microbial communities, however, has been explored to a much lesser degree. By using a combined null modeling approach, this study investigated the ecological assembly processes influencing both viral and microbial community structure within hydraulically fractured shale environments. Among other results, significant relationships between the structuring processes affecting both the viral and microbial community were observed, indicating that ecological assembly might be coordinated between these communities despite differing selective pressures. Within this deep subsurface ecosystem, these results reveal a potentially important balance of ecological dynamics that must be maintained to enable long-term microbial community persistence. More broadly, this relationship begins to provide insight into the development of communities across trophic levels.

scholarly journals Obesity, Asthma, and the Microbiome

Physiology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youngji Cho ◽  
Stephanie A. Shore
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factor ◽  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
Novel Treatments

Obesity is a risk factor for asthma, but standard asthma drugs have reduced efficacy in the obese. Obesity alters the gastrointestinal microbial community structure. This change in structure contributes to some obesity-related conditions and also could be contributing to obesity-related asthma. Although currently unexplored, obesity may also be altering lung microbiota. Understanding the role of microbiota in obesity-related asthma could lead to novel treatments for these patients.

scholarly journals mSphere of Influence: Drivers of Host-Associated Microbial Community Structure and Change

mSphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa L. Hale
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
Disease Susceptibility ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Microbial Structure ◽  
Mucus Barrier ◽  
Evolution Of Mammals

ABSTRACT Vanessa L. Hale studies the role of the microbiome in disease susceptibility in animal and human health. In this mSphere of Influence article, she reflects on how the papers “Evolution of mammals and their gut microbes” (R. E. Ley, M. Hamady, C. Lozupone, P. J. Turnbaugh, et al., Science 320:1647–1651, 2008, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1155725) and “A dietary fiber-deprived gut microbiota degrades the colonic mucus barrier and enhances pathogen susceptibility” (M. S. Desai, A. M. Seekatz, N. M. Koropatkin, N. Kamada, et al., Cell 167:1339–1353.e21, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.10.043) have provided a foundation for studying drivers of gut microbial structure and change across host species in the context of evolution and disease risk.

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