Stable bacterial polymorphism on a single limiting resource may appear if between the evolved strains metabolic interactions take place that allow the exchange of essential nutrients [8]. Towards an attempt to predict the possible outcome of longrunning evolution experiments, a network based on the metabolic capabilities of homogeneous populations of every single gene knockout strain (nodes) of...

Soldier and worker castes of lower wood-feeding termites, Reticulitermes flavipes, differ in morphology and diet, and may therefore play host to distinct bacterial communities. While many studies have attempted to characterize the gut microbiota in lower termites, to date no study exists which explores the differences in bacterial communities in these two lower termite castes . In this study TR...

Crude oil is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons with different structures; its components vary in bioavailability and toxicity. It is important to understand how bacterial communities response to different hydrocarbons and their co-acclimation in the process of degradation. In this study, microcosms with the addition of structurally different hydrocarbons were setup to investigate the succession...

The diversity and composition of ecological communities often co-vary with ecosystem productivity. However, the relative importance of productivity, or resource abundance, versus the spatial distribution of resources in shaping those ecological patterns is not well understood, particularly for the bacterial communities that underlie most important ecosystem functions. Increasing ecosystem produ...

The taxonomic composition of egg-associated microbial communities can play a crucial role in the development of fish embryos. In response, hosts increasingly influence the composition of their associated microbial communities during embryogenesis, as concluded from recent field studies and laboratory experiments. However, little is known about the taxonomic composition and the diversity of egg-...

Understanding the processes that influence the structure of biotic communities is one of the major ecological topics, and both stochastic and deterministic processes are expected to be at work simultaneously in most communities. Here, we investigated the vertical distribution patterns of bacterial communities in a 10-m-long soil core taken within permafrost of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. To get ...

We studied the effect of ectomycorrhizas and fertilization on soil microbial communities associated with roots of 10-year-old loblolly pine. Ectomycorrhizas were identified using a combination of community terminal restriction fragment profiling and matching of individual terminal restriction fragments to those produced from ectomycorrhizal clones and sequences recovered from roots and sporocar...

Microorganisms are closely associated with eggs and may play a determinant role in embryo survival. Yet, the majority of studies focusing on this association relied on culture-based methodology, eventually leading to a skewed assessment of microbial communities. By targeting the 16S rRNA gene and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, we, respectively, described bacterial and fungal communit...

Land-use change can have significant impacts on soil conditions and microbial communities are likely to respond to these changes. However, such responses are poorly characterized as few studies have examined how specific changes in edaphic characteristics do, or do not, influence the composition of soil bacterial and fungal communities across land-use types. Soil samples were collected from fou...

The relationship between the bacterial communities in anolyte and anode biofilms and the electrochemical properties of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) was investigated when a complex organic waste-decomposing solution was continuously supplied to MFCs as an electron donor. The current density increased gradually and was maintained at approximately 100 to 150 mA m(-2). Polarization curve analyses re...