Journal
MSYSTEMS
Volume 7, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY
Keywords
microbiome; host-microbiome; oxidation state; redox; biogeochemistry; microbial metabolisms; stoichiometry
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [2002104]
- National Institutes of Health [NCE R13 CA250289-01]
- Office of Naval Research [N00014-20-1-2140]
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- W. M. Keck Foundation
- Division Of Environmental Biology
- Direct For Biological Sciences [2002104] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Whether microbe is free-living or associated with host, its existence depends on limited elements and electron donors and acceptors. Two different approaches, environment first research and microbe first research, can reveal the selection of microbial metabolisms, alterations to host microbiomes, and the implications of climate change on microbial function.
Whether a microbe is free-living or associated with a host from across the tree of life, its existence depends on a limited number of elements and electron donors and acceptors. Yet divergent approaches have been used by investigators from different fields. The environment first research tradition emphasizes thermodynamics and biogeochemical principles, including the quantification of redox environments and elemental stoichiometry to identify transformations and thus an underlying microbe. The increasingly common microbe first research approach benefits from culturing and/or DNA sequencing methods to first identify a microbe and encoded metabolic functions. Here, the microbe itself serves as an indicator for environmental conditions and transformations. We illustrate the application of both approaches to the study of microbiomes and emphasize how both can reveal the selection of microbial metabolisms across diverse environments, anticipate alterations to microbiomes in host health, and understand the implications of a changing climate for microbial function.
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