Dispersal-competition tradeoff in microbiomes in the quest for land colonization.

ABSTRACT: Ancestor microbes started colonizing inland habitats approximately 2.7 to 3.5 billion years ago. With some exceptions, the key physiological adaptations of microbiomes associated with marine-to-land transitions have remained elusive. This is essentially caused by the lack of suitable systems that depict changes in microbiomes across sufficiently large time scales. Here, we investigate the adaptive routes taken by microbiomes along a contemporary gradient of land formation. Using functional trait-based metagenomics, we show that a switch from a microbial 'dispersal' to a 'competition' response modus best characterizes the microbial trait changes during this eco-evolutionary trajectory. The 'dispersal' modus prevails in microbiomes at the boundary sites between land and sea. It encompasses t

SUBMITTER: Dini-Andreote F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6013473 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature