The Niche at the Edge of Life or the Microbial Ecology (Including Microfungi) of Cuatro Cienegas: Mutualisms with Locals, Antagonisms Against Foreigners
Por:
Velez, Patricia, Espinosa-Asuar, Laura, Travisano, Michael, Eguiarte, Luis E., Souza, Valeria
Publicada:
1 ene 2018
Resumen:
In this chapter we will explore whether the niche concept is useful to
understand microbes, since we believe that this key concept in ecology
is particularly useful in the investigation of microbial biodiversity.
On the one hand, with microbes we can conduct experiments to analyze in
detail all the aspects of the Grinnellian niche, in a way that cannot be
done in other organisms. On the other hand, even if complicated, we can
develop different experiments and observations to start analyzing the
Eltonian aspects of the niche. Here we develop our ideas on how to study
the niche components in microbial systems and describe our advances in
analyzing these components in a particular group of organisms in the
Cuatro Cienegas Basin (CCB). In this oasis, the distinctive oligotrophic
conditions of several freshwater systems in CCB promote unique microbial
interactions in order to cope with nutrient stress, where antagonist and
synergic effects influence bacterial diversity structure, modifying the
nature and intensity of biotic interactions. For example, Bacillus has
few antagonistic interactions among strains of a given sampling site but
strong antagonisms when competing against strains from different sites.
Interestingly, antagonistic strains belonged to two genetically close
species, and their targets belonged to taxonomically separate groups.
Even more so, the same Bacillus strains showed great diversity in the
dependence of the different strains on other community members. While
antagonistic strains were in general prototrophs, a large proportion of
sensitive and resistant strains exhibited auxotrophy suggesting that
they need their community in order to survive. At CCB we believe that
the cohesion of the community through these positive interactions is
paramount to explain survival in such a harsh environment. As a result,
the multidimensional space where the theater of life plays in CCB is
very rich and full of actors, which shifts constantly, as virus and
other process ``chop the head'' of the dominant species and former
``underdogs'' of the rare biosphere take their roles. Finally, since
this play of ``life at the edge'' has been continued in the same site
for a very long time with coevolving communities, here the
``conversations and negotiations'' between microscopic actors seem to
be the reason why this stage has persisted for such a long time.
Filiaciones:
Velez, Patricia:
Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Inst Biol, Jardin Bot, Mexico City, DF, Mexico
Espinosa-Asuar, Laura:
Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Inst Ecol, Dept Ecol Evolut, Lab Evoluc Mol & Expt, Mexico City, DF, Mexico
Travisano, Michael:
Univ Minnesota, Dept Ecol Evolut & Behav, St Paul, MN 55108 USA
Eguiarte, Luis E.:
Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Inst Ecol, Dept Ecol Evolut, Lab Evoluc Mol & Expt, Mexico City, DF, Mexico
Souza, Valeria:
Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Inst Ecol, Dept Ecol Evolut, Lab Evoluc Mol & Expt, Mexico City, DF, Mexico
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