Host-associated microbiomes and their roles in marine ecosystem functions

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1 Genome and Biomedical Sciences Facility, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, United States
2 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, Balboa Ancon, Republic of Panama
3 Department of Microbiology and Ecosystem Science, Division of Microbial Ecology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
4 LEMM, Laboratory of Molecular Microbial Ecology, Institute of Microbiology Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
5 Department of Nematology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California, United States
6 Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, Maryland, United States
7 Centro de Biodiversidad y Descubrimiento de Drogas, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT AIP), Panama, Republic of Panama
8 Center for Ocean Health, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, Maine, United States
9 Department of Biology, Marine Biology, and Environmental Sciences, Roger Williams University, Bristol, Rhode Island, United States
10 Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany
11 Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States
12 Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States
13 Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, United States
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.27930v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolutionary Studies, Marine Biology
Keywords
Symbiosis, Microbiome, Ecosystem functions, Global change, Conservation, Evolution, Beneficial, Host, Marine
Copyright
© 2019 Wilkins et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Wilkins LGE, Leray M, Yuen B, Peixoto R, Pereira TJ, Bik HM, Coil DA, Duffy JE, Herre EA, Lessios H, Lucey N, Mejia LC, O'Dea A, Rasher DB, Sharp K, Sogin EM, Thacker RW, Vega Thurber R, Wcislo WT, Wilbanks EG, Eisen JA. 2019. Host-associated microbiomes and their roles in marine ecosystem functions. PeerJ Preprints 7:e27930v1

Abstract

The significance of mutualisms between eukaryotic hosts and microbes extends from the organismal to the ecosystem level, and mutualistic symbioses underpin the health of Earth’s most threatened marine ecosystems. Despite rapid growth in research on host-associated microbes (microbiomes), very little is known about their interactions for the vast majority of marine host species. We outline research priorities to broaden our current knowledge of host-microbiome interactions and how they shape marine ecosystems. We argue that this research frontier will allow us to predict responses of species, communities, and ecosystems to stressors driven by human activity, and inform future management and mitigation.

Author Comment

This is a preprint submission to PeerJ Preprints of a manuscript that is currently under review elsewhere.