Multiscale ecological boundaries and microbial community coalescence in host-associated microbiota.

ABSTRACT: Ecological boundaries between different environments are important for generating and maintaining biodiversity and for understanding community assembly. Classic examples include temperature gradients between upland and lowland habitats and estuaries (brackish) between fresh- and saltwater. While numerous studies have examined community assembly of free-living organisms across ecological boundaries, few studies have considered community assembly of host-associated (HA) organisms, including HA microbiota, across similar ecological boundaries. This is likely because it is unclear what constitutes an ecological boundary for organisms that reside on a host. We identify hybrid hosts (i.e., hosts derived from breeding events between two different genetic lineages) as ecological boundaries for HA

SUBMITTER: Camper BT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12724255 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature