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5 - Theory, community assembly, diversity and evolution in the microbial world

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Thomas P. Curtis,
Nigel C. Wallbridge and
William T. Sloan
Edited by
Roger Butlin,
Jon Bridle and
Dolph Schluter
Thomas P. Curtis
Affiliation:
School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Nigel C. Wallbridge
Affiliation:
Nomad Digital Limited
William T. Sloan
Affiliation:
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Glasgow
Roger Butlin
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Jon Bridle
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Dolph Schluter
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
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Summary

Theory in the microbial world

The microbial world is vast and important domain of apparently unfathomable complexity. The latest swathe of sequencing technology (Sogin et al. 2006; Huber et al. 2007) has confirmed what many had already predicted: there is an awful lot of different kinds of bacteria in the world. The number is unknown even in ostensibly well-studied environments and this is preventing us from understanding one of the most important and remarkable things about the microbial world: the way in which communities form and reform, and change.

For all our molecular sophistication, our analysis and understanding of the diversity and community assembly is still very primitive. Microbial ecology is perhaps in a situation analogous to that of general ecology before McArthur's first contributions; a situation described by Cody and Diamond (1975) who wrote:

in the 1950s, ecology was still mainly descriptive. It consisted of qualitative, situation-bound statements that had low predictive value, plus empirical facts that often seem to defy generalization.

(Cody & Diamond 1975)

What McArthur brought was theory, and theory is what microbial ecologists need now. Parameterized mathematical descriptions of community assembly will help us to make coherent quantitative predictions about the microbial world. These predictions can guide the exploration and manipulation of this domain.

In the search for theory, theoretical microbial ecologists have naturally looked to classical ecology for insight and inspiration (Horner-Devine et al. 2007; Prosser et al. 2007). This may be unwise.

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Speciation and Patterns of Diversity , pp. 59 - 76
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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