Spatial ecology of microbes - the role of spatial structure in microbial interactions

Carlos Arellano (Univ. Wien): Microbial diversity is essential for the functioning of microbial ecosystems. Losing such di-versity leads to dramatic imbalances and eventual loss of microbiomes, resulting, for exam-ple, in desertification, reduction of carbon stocks, and loss of aboveground ecosystems, in soils, to health complications, such as inflammatory diseases, obesity, and neurological dis-orders, in the human gut. Yet, when assayed in the lab, most of the microbes present in mi-crobiomes cannot coexist and diversity and functions are quickly lost. Considering the im-mense importance of microbial diversity in maintaining microbiome functions, we know re-markably little about how it is maintained in nature. Spatial structure of microbiomes has been proposed as a mediator of these interactions, permitting the coexistence of mutually exclusive microbes. Yet, this hypothesis has not been systematically tested because micro-biome processes occur at small spatial and temporal scales and are obscured by microbi-omes’ own intricated matrices. In my lab, we use a novel combination of a microfluidic meth-odological framework together with mathematical modeling to resolve the fundamental ques-tion of how microhabitat spatial structure mediates microbial interactions and drives diversity in microbiomes. Such empirical and modelling approach provides an integrated view to un-derstand the fundamental way spatial structure drives microbial diversity in microbiomes. Our aim with this cross-disciplinary set of techniques is to generate essential insights to preserve and recover microbiome diversity across all types of environments, from soils to the human gut.