A View into the Complexity of Microbial Communities

Microorganisms exist in nature as complex mixed communities that contain a wide range of individual species, each of which can play a different role in the community as a whole. The activity of microbial communities can have global implications for Earth’s biosphere and habitability, but the complexity of these communities has made it difficult to understand how they respond to changes in their environment.

A new study uses a combination of metagenomic, genome binning, and stimulus-induced metatranscriptomic approaches to provide insight into how a microbial biofilm responds to two environmental stimuli. Using the systematic meta-omics approach, a team of researchers demonstrated new steps toward understanding the complex roles of microorganisms within a community.

The study, “Microbial metabolic networks in a complex electrogenic biofilm recovered from a stimulus-induced metatranscriptomics approach,” was published in Nature: Scientific Reports . The study was supported in part by the NASA Astrobiology Institute element of the NASA Astrobiology Program.