Central Taxa Are Keystone Microbes During Early Succession.

ABSTRACT: Microorganisms underpin numerous ecosystem processes and support biodiversity globally. Yet, we understand surprisingly little about what structures environmental microbiomes, including how to efficiently identify key players. Microbiome network theory predicts that highly connected hubs act as keystones, but this has never been empirically tested in nature. Combining culturing, sequencing, networks and field experiments, we isolated 'central' (highly connected, hub taxa), 'intermediate' (moderately connected), and 'peripheral' (weakly/unconnected) microbes and experimentally evaluated their effects on soil microbiome assembly during early succession in nature. Central early colonisers significantly (1) enhanced biodiversity (35%-40% richer communities), (2) reshaped trajectories of microb

SUBMITTER: Rawstern AH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11687413 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature