GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
Mol Ecol. 2020 Jun;29(11):2094-2108. doi: 10.1111/mec.15470. Epub 2020 Jun 13.
Communities are shaped by scale dependent processes. To study the diversity and variation of microbial communities across scales, the invasive and widespread seaweed Agarophyton vermiculophyllum presents a unique opportunity. We characterized pro- and eukaryotic communities associated with this holobiont across its known distribution range, which stretches over the northern hemisphere. Our data reveal that community composition and diversity in the holobiont vary at local but also larger geographic scales. While processes acting at the local scale (i.e., within population) are the main structuring drivers of associated microbial communities, changes in community composition also depend on processes acting at larger geographic scales. Interestingly, the largest analysed scale (i.e., native and non-native ranges) explained variation in the prevalence of predicted functional groups, which could suggest a functional shift in microbiota occurred over the course of the invasion process. While high variability in microbiota at the local scale supports A. vermiculophyllum to be a generalist host, we also identified a number of core taxa. These geographically independent holobiont members imply that cointroduction of specific microbiota may have additionally promoted the invasion process.
社区是由依赖于尺度的过程塑造的。为了研究微生物群落在不同尺度上的多样性和变化，入侵性强且分布广泛的海藻叶枝藻（Agarophyton vermiculophyllum）提供了一个独特的机会。我们对这个全共生体在其已知分布范围内的原核生物和真核生物群落进行了特征描述，其分布范围横跨北半球。我们的数据表明，全共生体的群落组成和多样性在局部和更大的地理尺度上都存在差异。虽然在局部尺度（即种群内）起作用的过程是相关微生物群落的主要结构驱动因素，但群落组成的变化也取决于更大地理尺度上的过程。有趣的是，分析的最大尺度（即原生和非原生范围）解释了预测功能组的流行率的变化，这可能表明在入侵过程中微生物群落发生了功能转变。虽然在局部尺度上微生物群具有高度的可变性，这支持了叶枝藻是一种一般性宿主，但我们也鉴定出了一些核心分类群。这些在地理上独立的全共生体成员意味着特定微生物群的共同引入可能还促进了入侵过程。
