Paradox of the Sub-Plankton: Plausible Mechanisms and Open Problems Underlying Strain-Level Diversity in Microbial Communities.

Abstract excerpt

Microbial communities are often complex and highly diverse, typically with dozens of species sharing spatially-restricted environments. Within these species, genetic and ecological variation often exists at a much finer scale, with closely related strains coexisting and competing. While the coexistence of strains in communities has been heavily explored over the past two decades, we have no self-consistent theory...

Topics

• Biodiversity
• Microbiota
• Bacteria
• Gene Transfer, Horizontal
• Genetic Variation
• Ecosystem
• Biological Evolution