A conceptual framework for the phylogenetically constrained assembly of microbial communities.

ABSTRACT: Microbial communities play essential and preponderant roles in all ecosystems. Understanding the rules that govern microbial community assembly will have a major impact on our ability to manage microbial ecosystems, positively impacting, for instance, human health and agriculture. Here, I present a phylogenetically constrained community assembly principle grounded on the well-supported facts that deterministic processes have a significant impact on microbial community assembly, that microbial communities show significant phylogenetic signal, and that microbial traits and ecological coherence are, to some extent, phylogenetically conserved. From these facts, I derive a few predictions which form the basis of the framework. Chief among them is the existence, within most microbial ecosystems,

SUBMITTER: Aguirre de Carcer D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6822436 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature