Biddanda Bopaiah, Dila Deborah, Weinke Anthony, Mancuso Jasmine, Villar-Argaiz Manuel, Medina-Sánchez Juan Manuel, González-Olalla Juan Manuel, Carrillo Presentación
Annis Water Resources Institute, Grand Valley State University, Muskegon, MI 49441, USA.
School of Freshwater Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53204, USA.
Life (Basel). 2021 Feb 17;11(2):152. doi: 10.3390/life11020152.
Who's cooking, who's cleaning, and who's got the remote control within the waters blanketing Earth? Anatomically tiny, numerically dominant microbes are the crucial "homemakers" of the watery household. Phytoplankton's culinary abilities enable them to create food by absorbing sunlight to fix carbon and release oxygen, making microbial autotrophs top-chefs in the aquatic kitchen. However, they are not the only bioengineers that balance this complex household. Ubiquitous heterotrophic microbes including prokaryotic bacteria and archaea (both "bacteria" henceforth), eukaryotic protists, and viruses, recycle organic matter and make inorganic nutrients available to primary producers. Grazing protists compete with viruses for bacterial biomass, whereas mixotrophic protists produce new organic matter as well as consume microbial biomass. When viruses press remote-control buttons, by modifying host genomes or lysing them, the outcome can reverberate throughout the microbial community and beyond. Despite recognition of the vital role of microbes in biosphere housekeeping, impacts of anthropogenic stressors and climate change on their biodiversity, evolution, and ecological function remain poorly understood. How trillions of the smallest organisms in Earth's largest ecosystem respond will be hugely consequential. By making the study of ecology personal, the "housekeeping" perspective can provide better insights into changing ecosystem structure and function at all scales.
在覆盖地球的水域中，谁在做饭，谁在打扫，谁又掌控着遥控器呢？从解剖学角度来看体积微小，但数量占主导的微生物才是这个水域大家庭至关重要的“家庭主妇”。浮游植物的“烹饪”能力使它们能够通过吸收阳光来固定碳并释放氧气，从而制造食物，这使得微生物自养生物成为水生“厨房”中的顶级厨师。然而，它们并不是平衡这个复杂“家庭”的唯一生物工程师。无处不在的异养微生物，包括原核细菌和古菌（此后统称“细菌”）、真核原生生物和病毒，会循环利用有机物，并为初级生产者提供无机养分。捕食性原生生物与病毒争夺细菌生物量，而兼养性原生生物既会产生新的有机物，也会消耗微生物生物量。当病毒按下“遥控器按钮”，通过改变宿主基因组或使其裂解时，其结果可能会在整个微生物群落及更广泛的范围内产生影响。尽管人们认识到微生物在生物圈维持运转中发挥着至关重要的作用，但人为压力源和气候变化对其生物多样性、进化及生态功能的影响仍知之甚少。地球上最大生态系统中数万亿最小的生物体将如何应对，其后果将极为重大。通过将生态学研究个人化，“维持运转”的视角能够为洞察各个尺度上不断变化的生态系统结构和功能提供更好的见解。
