Thurber Rebecca Vega
Florida International University, Department of Biological Sciences, Biscayne Bay Campus, Marine Science 355, 3000 NE 151st Street, North Miami, FL 33181, USA.
Curr Opin Microbiol. 2009 Oct;12(5):582-7. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2009.08.008. Epub 2009 Oct 5.
Phages exert tremendous ecological and evolutionary forces directly on their bacterial hosts. Phage induced cell lysis also indirectly contributes to organic and inorganic nutrient recycling. Phage abundance, diversity, and distribution are therefore important parameters in ecosystem function. The assumption that phage consortia are ubiquitous and homogenous across habitats (everything is everywhere) is currently being re-evaluated. New studies on phage biogeography have found that some phages are globally distributed while others are unique and perhaps endemic to specific environments. Furthermore, advances in technology have allowed scientists to conduct experiments aimed at analyzing phage consortia over temporal scales, and surprisingly have found reoccurring patterns. This review discusses currents in the field of phage ecology with particular focus on efforts to characterize phage diversity and biogeography across various spatial and temporal scales.
噬菌体直接对其细菌宿主施加巨大的生态和进化作用力。噬菌体诱导的细胞裂解也间接有助于有机和无机养分的循环利用。因此，噬菌体的丰度、多样性和分布是生态系统功能的重要参数。目前，关于噬菌体群落普遍存在且在不同栖息地中同质化（万物皆无处不在）这一假设正在重新评估中。关于噬菌体生物地理学的新研究发现，一些噬菌体在全球范围内分布，而另一些则是特定环境所特有的，甚至可能是地方性的。此外，技术的进步使科学家能够开展旨在分析不同时间尺度上噬菌体群落的实验，并且令人惊讶地发现了反复出现的模式。本综述讨论了噬菌体生态学领域的当前进展，特别关注在各种空间和时间尺度上表征噬菌体多样性和生物地理学的研究工作。
