Function and functional redundancy in microbial systems
Author(s)
Louca, Stilianos; Mazel, Florent; Albright, Michaeline B. N.; Huber, Julie A.; O’Connor, Mary I.; Ackermann, Martin; Hahn, Aria S.; Srivastava, Diane S.; Crowe, Sean A.; Doebeli, Michael; Parfrey, Laura Wegener; Polz, Martin F; ... Show more Show less
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Microbial communities often exhibit incredible taxonomic diversity, raising questions regarding the mechanisms enabling species coexistence and the role of this diversity in community functioning. On the one hand, many coexisting but taxonomically distinct microorganisms can encode the same energy-yielding metabolic functions, and this functional redundancy contrasts with the expectation that species should occupy distinct metabolic niches. On the other hand, the identity of taxa encoding each function can vary substantially across space or time with little effect on the function, and this taxonomic variability is frequently thought to result from ecological drift between equivalent organisms. Here, we synthesize the powerful paradigm emerging from these two patterns, connecting the roles of function, functional redundancy and taxonomy in microbial systems. We conclude that both patterns are unlikely to be the result of ecological drift, but are inevitable emergent properties of open microbial systems resulting mainly from biotic interactions and environmental and spatial processes.
Date issued
2018-04Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringJournal
Nature Ecology & Evolution
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Louca, Stilianos et al. “Function and Functional Redundancy in Microbial Systems.” Nature Ecology & Evolution 2, 6 (April 2018): 936–943 © 2018 Nature Publishing Group
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
2397-334X