Microbial interactions and community assembly at microscales.

Microbial interactions and community assembly at microscales. Curr Opin Microbiol. 2016 May 24;31:227-234 Authors: Cordero OX, Datta MS Abstract In most environments, microbial interactions take place within microscale cell aggregates. At the scale of these aggregates (∼100μm), interactions are likely to be the dominant driver of population structure and dynamics. In particular, organisms that exploit interspecific interactions to increase ecological performance often co-aggregate. Conversely, organisms that antagonize each other will tend to spatially segregate, creating distinct micro-communities and increased diversity at larger length scales. We argue that, in order to understand the role that biological interactions play in microbial community function, it is necessary to study microscale spatial organization with enough throughput to measure statistical associations between taxa and possible alternative community states. We conclude by proposing strategies to tackle this challenge. PMID: 27232202 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Current Opinion in Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Curr Opin Microbiol Source Type: research