The Social Biology of Microbial Communities

The Social Biology of Microbial Communities PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309264324
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 633

Get Book Here

Book Description
Beginning with the germ theory of disease in the 19th century and extending through most of the 20th century, microbes were believed to live their lives as solitary, unicellular, disease-causing organisms . This perception stemmed from the focus of most investigators on organisms that could be grown in the laboratory as cellular monocultures, often dispersed in liquid, and under ambient conditions of temperature, lighting, and humidity. Most such inquiries were designed to identify microbial pathogens by satisfying Koch's postulates.3 This pathogen-centric approach to the study of microorganisms produced a metaphorical "war" against these microbial invaders waged with antibiotic therapies, while simultaneously obscuring the dynamic relationships that exist among and between host organisms and their associated microorganisms-only a tiny fraction of which act as pathogens. Despite their obvious importance, very little is actually known about the processes and factors that influence the assembly, function, and stability of microbial communities. Gaining this knowledge will require a seismic shift away from the study of individual microbes in isolation to inquiries into the nature of diverse and often complex microbial communities, the forces that shape them, and their relationships with other communities and organisms, including their multicellular hosts. On March 6 and 7, 2012, the Institute of Medicine's (IOM's) Forum on Microbial Threats hosted a public workshop to explore the emerging science of the "social biology" of microbial communities. Workshop presentations and discussions embraced a wide spectrum of topics, experimental systems, and theoretical perspectives representative of the current, multifaceted exploration of the microbial frontier. Participants discussed ecological, evolutionary, and genetic factors contributing to the assembly, function, and stability of microbial communities; how microbial communities adapt and respond to environmental stimuli; theoretical and experimental approaches to advance this nascent field; and potential applications of knowledge gained from the study of microbial communities for the improvement of human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health and toward a deeper understanding of microbial diversity and evolution. The Social Biology of Microbial Communities: Workshop Summary further explains the happenings of the workshop.

The Social Biology of Microbial Communities

The Social Biology of Microbial Communities PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309264324
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 633

Get Book Here

Book Description
Beginning with the germ theory of disease in the 19th century and extending through most of the 20th century, microbes were believed to live their lives as solitary, unicellular, disease-causing organisms . This perception stemmed from the focus of most investigators on organisms that could be grown in the laboratory as cellular monocultures, often dispersed in liquid, and under ambient conditions of temperature, lighting, and humidity. Most such inquiries were designed to identify microbial pathogens by satisfying Koch's postulates.3 This pathogen-centric approach to the study of microorganisms produced a metaphorical "war" against these microbial invaders waged with antibiotic therapies, while simultaneously obscuring the dynamic relationships that exist among and between host organisms and their associated microorganisms-only a tiny fraction of which act as pathogens. Despite their obvious importance, very little is actually known about the processes and factors that influence the assembly, function, and stability of microbial communities. Gaining this knowledge will require a seismic shift away from the study of individual microbes in isolation to inquiries into the nature of diverse and often complex microbial communities, the forces that shape them, and their relationships with other communities and organisms, including their multicellular hosts. On March 6 and 7, 2012, the Institute of Medicine's (IOM's) Forum on Microbial Threats hosted a public workshop to explore the emerging science of the "social biology" of microbial communities. Workshop presentations and discussions embraced a wide spectrum of topics, experimental systems, and theoretical perspectives representative of the current, multifaceted exploration of the microbial frontier. Participants discussed ecological, evolutionary, and genetic factors contributing to the assembly, function, and stability of microbial communities; how microbial communities adapt and respond to environmental stimuli; theoretical and experimental approaches to advance this nascent field; and potential applications of knowledge gained from the study of microbial communities for the improvement of human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health and toward a deeper understanding of microbial diversity and evolution. The Social Biology of Microbial Communities: Workshop Summary further explains the happenings of the workshop.

Microbial Evolution and Co-Adaptation

Microbial Evolution and Co-Adaptation PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309131219
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Get Book Here

Book Description
Dr. Joshua Lederberg - scientist, Nobel laureate, visionary thinker, and friend of the Forum on Microbial Threats - died on February 2, 2008. It was in his honor that the Institute of Medicine's Forum on Microbial Threats convened a public workshop on May 20-21, 2008, to examine Dr. Lederberg's scientific and policy contributions to the marketplace of ideas in the life sciences, medicine, and public policy. The resulting workshop summary, Microbial Evolution and Co-Adaptation, demonstrates the extent to which conceptual and technological developments have, within a few short years, advanced our collective understanding of the microbiome, microbial genetics, microbial communities, and microbe-host-environment interactions.

Microbial Services in Restoration Ecology

Microbial Services in Restoration Ecology PDF Author: Jay Shankar Singh
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0128204273
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Get Book Here

Book Description
Microbial Services in Restoration Ecology describes the role of microbial resources and their beneficial services in soil fertility and restoration of degraded ecosystems. The role of microbial interactions with crop plants which benefit agricultural productivity is also discussed. The book also includes significant advances in microbial based bio-pesticide production and strategies for high-density bio-inoculant cultivation to improve stress survivability of crop plants. This work provides next-generation molecular technologies for exploring complex microbial secondary metabolites and metabolic regulation in viability of plant–microbe interactions. - Describes the role of microbial resources and their beneficial services in soil fertility and restoration of degraded ecosystems - Discusses the role of microbial interactions with crop plants and how it benefits of agricultural productivity - Includes significant advances in microbial based bio-pesticide production and strategies for high-density bio-inoculant cultivation to improve stress survivability of crop plants provides next-generation molecular technologies for exploring complex microbial secondary metabolites and metabolic regulation in viability of plant–microbe interactions

Uncultivated Microorganisms

Uncultivated Microorganisms PDF Author: Slava S. Epstein
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3540854657
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 215

Get Book Here

Book Description
In 1898, an Austrian microbiologist Heinrich Winterberg made a curious observation: the number of microbial cells in his samples did not match the number of colonies formed on nutrient media (Winterberg 1898). About a decade later, J. Amann qu- tified this mismatch, which turned out to be surprisingly large, with non-growing cells outnumbering the cultivable ones almost 150 times (Amann 1911). These papers signify some of the earliest steps towards the discovery of an important phenomenon known today as the Great Plate Count Anomaly (Staley and Konopka 1985). Note how early in the history of microbiology these steps were taken. Detecting the Anomaly almost certainly required the Plate. If so, then the period from 1881 to 1887, the years when Robert Koch and Petri introduced their key inventions (Koch 1881; Petri 1887), sets the earliest boundary for the discovery, which is remarkably close to the 1898 observations by H. Winterberg. Celebrating its 111th anniversary, the Great Plate Count Anomaly today is arguably the oldest unresolved microbiological phenomenon. In the years to follow, the Anomaly was repeatedly confirmed by all microb- logists who cared to compare the cell count in the inoculum to the colony count in the Petri dish (cf., Cholodny 1929; Butkevich 1932; Butkevich and Butkevich 1936). By mid-century, the remarkable difference between the two counts became a universally recognized phenomenon, acknowledged by several classics of the time (Waksman and Hotchkiss 1937; ZoBell 1946; Jannasch and Jones 1959).

The Role of Microbial Communities in Tropical Ecosystems

The Role of Microbial Communities in Tropical Ecosystems PDF Author: Silvia Pajares
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889450678
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 175

Get Book Here

Book Description
Tropical ecosystems are different in important ways from those of temperate regions. They are a major reservoir of plant and animal biodiversity and play important roles in global climate regulation and biogeochemical cycling. They are also under great threat due to the conversion of tropical ecosystems to other uses. Thus, in the context of global change, it is crucial to understand how environmental factors, biogeographic patterns, and land use changes interact to influence the structure and function of microbial communities in these ecosystems. The contributions to this Research Topic showcase the current knowledge regarding microbial ecology in tropical ecosystems, identify many challenges and questions that remain to be addressed and open up new horizons in our understanding of the environmental and anthropological factors controlling microbial communities in these important ecosystems.

Geomicrobiology: Molecular and Environmental Perspective

Geomicrobiology: Molecular and Environmental Perspective PDF Author: Alexander Loy
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048192048
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 445

Get Book Here

Book Description
The interaction of microorganisms with geological activities results in processes influencing development of the Earth’s geo- and biospheres. In assessing these microbial functions, scientists have explored short- and longterm geological changes attributed to microorganisms and developed new approaches to evaluate the physiology of microbes including microbial interaction with the geological environment. As the field of geomicrobiology developed, it has become highly interdisciplinary and this book provides a review of the recent developments in a cross section of topics including origin of life, microbial-mineral interactions and microbial processes functioning in marine as well as terrestrial environments. A major component of this book addresses molecular techniques to evaluate microbial evolution and assess relationships of microbes in complex, natural c- munities. Recent developments in so-called ‘omics’ technologies, including (meta) genomics and (meta)proteomics, and isotope labeling methods allow new insights into the function of microbial community members and their possible geological impact. While this book summarizes current knowledge in various areas, it also reveals unresolved questions that require future investigations. Information in these chapters enhances our fundamental knowledge of geomicrobiology that contributes to the exploitation of microbial functions in mineral and environmental biotechn- ogy applications. It is our hope that this book will stimulate interest in the general field of geomicrobiology and encourage others to explore microbial processes as applied to the Earth.

Intra- and inter-species interactions in microbial communities

Intra- and inter-species interactions in microbial communities PDF Author: Luis Raul Comolli
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889194493
Category : Botany
Languages : en
Pages : 150

Get Book Here

Book Description
Recent developments in various “OMICs” fields have revolutionized our understanding of the vast diversity and ubiquity of microbes in the biosphere. However, most of the current paradigms of microbial cell biology, and our view of how microbes live and what they are capable of, are derived from in vitro experiments on isolated strains. Even the co-culturing of mixed species to interrogate community behavior is relatively new. But the majority of microorganisms lives in complex communities in natural environments, under varying conditions, and often cannot be cultivated. Unless we obtain a detailed understanding of the near-native 3D ultrastructure of individual community members, the 3D spatial community organization, their metabolic interdependences, coordinated gene expression and the spatial organization of their macromolecular machines inventories as well as their communication strategies, we won’t be able to truly understand microbial community life. How spatial and also temporal organization in cell–cell interactions are achieved remains largely elusive. For example, a key question in microbial ecology is what mechanisms microbes employ to respond when faced with prey, competitors or predators, and changes in external factors. Specifically, to what degree do bacterial cells in biofilms act individually or with coordinated responses? What are the spatial extent and coherence of coordinated responses? In addition, networks linking organisms across a dynamic range of physical constraints and connections should provide the basis for linked evolutionary changes under pressure from a changing environment. Therefore, we need to investigate microbial responses to altered or adverse environmental conditions (including phages, predators, and competitors) and their macromolecular, metabolic responses according to their spatial organization. We envision a diverse set of tools, including optical, spectroscopical, chemical and ultrastructural imaging techniques that will be utilized to address questions regarding e.g. intra- and inter-organism interactions linked to ultrastructure, and correlated adaptive responses in gene expression, physiological and metabolic states as a consequence of the alterations of their environment. Clearly strategies for co-evolution and in general the display of adaptive strategies of a microbial network as a response to the altered environment are of high interest. While a special focus will be placed on terrestrial sole-species or mixed biofilms, we are also interested in aquatic systems, biofilms in general and microbes living in symbiosis. In this Research Topic, we wish to summarize and review results investigating interactions and possibly networks between microbes of the same or different species, their co-occurrence, as well as spatiotemporal patterns of distribution. Our goal is to include a broad spectrum of experimental and theoretical contributions, from research and review articles to hypothesis and theory, aiming at understanding microbial interactions at a systems level.

Microbiomes of Soils, Plants and Animals

Microbiomes of Soils, Plants and Animals PDF Author: Rachael E. Antwis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781108654418
Category : Microbial ecology
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
A comparative, holistic synthesis of microbiome research, spanning soil, plant, animal and human hosts.

Fundamentals of Microbiome Science

Fundamentals of Microbiome Science PDF Author: Angela E. Douglas
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691217718
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Get Book Here

Book Description
"This book provides an accessible and authoritative guide to the fundamental principles of microbiome science, an exciting and fast-emerging new discipline that is reshaping many aspects of the life sciences. Resident microbes in healthy animals--including humans--can dictate many traits of the animal host. This animal microbiome is a second immune system conferring protection against pathogens; it can structure host metabolism in animals as diverse as reef corals and hibernating mammals; and it may influence animal behavior, from social recognition to emotional states. These microbial partners can also drive ecologically important traits, from thermal tolerance to diet, and have contributed to animal diversification over long evolutionary timescales"--Publisher by publisher.

Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology

Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology PDF Author: Larry L. Barton
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118966260
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 467

Get Book Here

Book Description
An authoritative overview of the ecological activities of microbes in the biosphere Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology presents a broad overview of microbial activity and microbes' interactions with their environments and communities. Adopting an integrative approach, this text covers both conventional ecological issues as well as cross-disciplinary investigations that combine facets of microbiology, ecology, environmental science and engineering, molecular biology, and biochemistry. Focusing primarily on single-cell forms of prokaryotes — and cellular forms of algae, fungi, and protozoans — this book enables readers to gain insight into the fundamental methodologies for the characterization of microorganisms in the biosphere. The authors draw from decades of experience to examine the environmental processes mediated by microorganisms and explore the interactions between microorganisms and higher life forms. Highly relevant to modern readers, this book examines topics including the ecology of microorganisms in engineered environments, microbial phylogeny and interactions, microbial processes in relation to environmental pollution, and many more. Now in its second edition, this book features updated references and major revisions to chapters on assessing microbial communities, community relationships, and their global impact. New content such as effective public communication of research findings and advice on scientific article review equips readers with practical real-world skills. Explores the activities of microorganisms in specific environments with case studies and actual research data Highlights how prominent microbial biologists address significant microbial ecology issues Offers guidance on scientific communication, including scientific presentations and grant preparation Includes plentiful illustrations and examples of microbial interactions, community structures, and human-bacterial connections Provides chapter summaries, review questions, selected reading lists, a complete glossary, and critical thinking exercises Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology is an ideal textbook for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in biology, microbiology, ecology, and environmental science, while also serving as a current and informative reference for microbiologists, cell and molecular biologists, ecologists, and environmental professionals.