Özkurt Ezgi
Quadram Institute Bioscience, Food, Microbiome & Health Department, Norwich, United Kingdom.
mSystems. 2025 Aug 19;10(8):e0174524. doi: 10.1128/msystems.01745-24. Epub 2025 Jul 21.
Disentangling the ecological mechanisms shaping the assembly of complex communities with thousands of interacting species remains a significant challenge. Ecological models derived from observational data are valuable tools for describing community states and generating hypotheses. Integrating these models with experimental approaches is crucial for addressing the challenges of uncovering the complex mechanisms and dynamics underlying microbiome assembly. Strategic experimental designs can complement observational data, improving inference accuracy and advancing efforts to restore microbiota and enhance their therapeutic potential. Building on insights from previous studies, this paper organizes core concepts into four main themes where controlled, trackable experiments are particularly effective in advancing our understanding of microbiome assembly rules and mechanisms: resolving the role of (i) ecological drift and (ii) priority effects in microbiome assembly, (iii) subspecies-level microbial dynamics, and (iv) controlled replication of community assembly dynamics.
理清塑造由数千个相互作用物种组成的复杂群落组装的生态机制仍然是一项重大挑战。从观测数据中得出的生态模型是描述群落状态和生成假设的宝贵工具。将这些模型与实验方法相结合对于应对揭示微生物群落组装背后复杂机制和动态的挑战至关重要。战略性实验设计可以补充观测数据，提高推断准确性，并推动恢复微生物群及其治疗潜力的努力。基于先前研究的见解，本文将核心概念组织成四个主要主题，在这些主题中，可控、可追踪的实验在推进我们对微生物群落组装规则和机制的理解方面特别有效：解决（i）生态漂变和（ii）优先效应在微生物群落组装中的作用，（iii）亚种水平的微生物动态，以及（iv）群落组装动态的可控复制。
