Microbial Ecology cluster, Genomics Research in Ecology and Evolution in Nature (GREEN), Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Microbial Ecology cluster, Genomics Research in Ecology and Evolution in Nature (GREEN), Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Trends Microbiol. 2018 Sep;26(9):738-747. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2018.02.011. Epub 2018 Mar 14.
Our planet teems with microorganisms that often present a skewed abundance distribution in a local community, with relatively few dominant species coexisting alongside a high number of rare species. Recent studies have demonstrated that these rare taxa serve as limitless reservoirs of genetic diversity, and perform disproportionate types of functions despite their low abundances. However, relatively little is known about the mechanisms controlling rarity and the processes promoting the development of the rare biosphere. Here, we propose the use of multivariate cut-offs to estimate rare species and phylogenetic null models applied to predefined rare taxa to disentangle the relative influences of ecoevolutionary processes mediating the assembly of the rare biosphere. Importantly, the identification of the factors controlling rare species assemblages is critical for understanding the types of rarity, how the rare biosphere is established, and how rare microorganisms fluctuate over spatiotemporal scales, thus enabling prospective predictions of ecosystem responses.
我们的星球上充满了微生物，它们在当地群落中常常呈现出倾斜的丰度分布，少数占优势的物种与大量稀有物种共存。最近的研究表明，这些稀有分类群是遗传多样性的无限库，尽管它们的丰度较低，但却发挥着不成比例的功能。然而，对于控制稀有性的机制以及促进稀有生物界发展的过程，我们知之甚少。在这里，我们建议使用多元截断值来估计稀有物种，并应用于预定义的稀有分类群的系统发育零模型，以区分调节稀有生物界组装的生态进化过程的相对影响。重要的是，确定控制稀有物种组合的因素对于理解稀有性的类型、稀有生物界的建立方式以及稀有微生物在时空尺度上的波动方式至关重要，从而能够对生态系统的反应进行前瞻性预测。
