Abstract
Microbial communities mediate crucial biogeochemical, biomedical and biotechnological processes, yet our understanding of their assembly, and our ability to control its outcome, remain poor. Existing evidence presents conflicting views on whether microbial ecosystem assembly is predictable, or inherently unpredictable. We address this issue using a well-controlled laboratory model system, in which source microbial communities colonize a pristine environment to form complex, nutrient-cycling ecosystems. When the source communities colonize a novel environment, final community composition and function (as measured by redox potential) are unpredictable, although a signature of the community’s previous history is maintained. However, when the source communities are pre-conditioned to their new habitat, community development is more reproducible. This situation contrasts with some studies of communities of macro-organisms, where strong selection under novel environmental conditions leads to reproducible community structure, whereas communities under weaker selection show more variability. Our results suggest that the microbial rare biosphere may have an important role in the predictability of microbial community development, and that pre-conditioning may help to reduce unpredictability in the design of microbial communities for biotechnological applications.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Richard Blythe, Tom Curtis, Neil Gray, Bhavin Khatri, Jana Schwarz-Linek, Wilson Poon, Jim Prosser and Bartlomiej Waclaw for valuable discussions, Kate Heal, Bhavin Khatri and Alex Jackson for assistance with sample collection, Martin Simmen for assistance with NMDS and statistical analysis, Jan Krowkowski for environmental data and Stephen Bridgett and Chris Quince for assistance with the high-throughput sequence analysis. BMS was supported through WP 6 of the EU FP7 WISER project. MEC holds a Royal Society Research Professorship, while RJA was supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. AF was supported by a Darwin Trust Fellowship, and thanks the late Prof. Kenneth Murray for additional support. This work was funded by the Leverhulme Trust under grant F/00158/BX, by the EPSRC under grant EP/E030173, by a NERC CEH small grant and by a Royal Society Research Grant.
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Pagaling, E., Strathdee, F., Spears, B. et al. Community history affects the predictability of microbial ecosystem development. ISME J 8, 19–30 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2013.150
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2013.150
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