Adapting with Microbial Help: Microbiome Flexibility Facilitates Rapid Responses to Environmental Change
Type
ArticleAuthors
Voolstra, Christian R.
Ziegler, Maren
Date
2020-06-16Online Publication Date
2020-06-16Print Publication Date
2020-07Submitted Date
2020-01-14Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/663683
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Animals and plants are metaorganisms and associate with microbes that affect their physiology, stress tolerance, and fitness. Here the hypothesis that alteration of the microbiome may constitute a fast-response mechanism to environmental change is examined. This is supported by recent reciprocal transplant experiments with reef corals, which have shown that their microbiome adapts to thermally variable habitats and changes over time when transplanted into different environments. Further, inoculation of corals with beneficial bacteria increases their stress tolerance. But corals differ in their ability to flexibly associate with different bacteria. How scales of microbiome flexibility may reflect different metaorganism adaptation mechanisms is discussed and future directions for research are pinpointed. It is posited that microbiome flexibility is a broad phenomenon that contributes to the ability of organisms to respond to environmental change. Importantly, adapting with microbial help may provide an alternate route to organismal adaptation that facilitates rapid responses.Citation
Voolstra, C. R., & Ziegler, M. (2020). Adapting with Microbial Help: Microbiome Flexibility Facilitates Rapid Responses to Environmental Change. BioEssays, 2000004. doi:10.1002/bies.202000004Sponsors
Figure 3 was produced by Ivan Gromicho, scientific illustrator at KingAbdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).Publisher
WileyJournal
BioEssaysAdditional Links
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bies.202000004https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/bies.202000004
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1002/bies.202000004
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