A microbial game of thrones - from theory to application

细菌是微小的微生物，通常比人类头发的宽度小一百倍，但它们加在一起仍然构成了地球上所有生命物质的很大一部分。它们也是我们星球上化学元素循环的主要原因。它们是理解全球变暖后果的关键组成部分--全球变暖主要是由化石燃料燃烧引起的。*在分子水平上，细菌表现出比动物或植物更多的生物多样性。在自然生态系统中，它们形成了高度复杂和充满活力的群落。到目前为止，这些群落的生态一直与功能理论的发展背道而驰，这些理论可以用来理解自然中元素的循环，或者合理地设计细菌群落，以做一些有用的事情，比如生产可再生能源，以减缓全球变化。*两种相互竞争的生态观点被称为“生态位”和“中性”理论。“生态位”观点认为，每种细菌在自然界中都有其适当的位置，当环境对其特定性质有利时，它们的表现将优于竞争对手。“中性”观点认为，许多不同的物种具有相似的特性，任何单一物种的生态成功都是由偶然过程决定的。然而，这两种观点都不能解释一般的观察结果，即微生物群落只由少数细菌主导(与“生态位”理论一致)，但显示出这些赢家的明显随机更替(微生物的权力游戏，与“中性”理论一致)。*拟议的研究采用经济科学的概念，调查“生态位”和“中性”的观点是否可以统一为微生物生态学的总体理论，以解释这些普遍的观察结果。我的中心前提是，在微生物生态学中，种群规模和生态适宜度之间存在着正向关系，这是由短时间内的微观进化带来的。这一前提类似于财富和财富回报之间的正向关系，经济学家用这种关系来解释财富分配中的高度不平等。*NSERC的这项发现研究旨在为这一新理论提供实验支持--并通过促进可再生生物能源生产的强大和成本效益的过程来应用它。该计划的团队将在稳定的条件下进行长期持续的微生物群落培养，同时使用下一代DNA测序技术监测种群动态。总而言之，这些方法使我能够评估与新进化的生物多样性相关的潜在健康益处。*如果成功，这项研究将对微生物生态学做出开创性的贡献，并有助于解决一个具有高度社会相关性的现实世界问题--一个在经济上可行的可持续能源生产过程。

Bacteria are tiny microbes, typically a hundred times smaller than the width of a human hair, but together they still make up a large part of all living matter on Earth. They are also largely responsible for the cycling of the chemical elements on our planet. They are a key component in understanding the consequences of global warming - brought about mainly by fossil fuel burning.***At the molecular level, bacteria display much more biodiversity than animals or plants. In natural ecosystems they form highly complex and dynamic communities. The ecology of these communities has so far defied the development of functional theory that can be used to understand the cycling of the elements in nature, or to rationally design bacterial communities to do useful things like production of renewable energy to mitigate global change.***Two competing ecological perspectives are known as "niche" and "neutral" theory. The "niche" perspective holds that each bacterium has its proper place in nature and will outperform its competitors when the environment favours its specific properties. The "neutral" perspective holds that many different species have similar properties and the ecological success of any single species is determined by chance processes. However, neither perspective can explain general observations that microbial communities are dominated by only a handful of bacteria (consistent with "niche" theory) yet show apparently random turnover of these winners (the microbial game of thrones, consistent with "neutral" theory).***Adopting concepts from the economical sciences, the proposed research investigates whether the "niche" and "neutral" perspectives can be unified into an overarching theory for microbial ecology that can explain those general observations. My central premise is that in microbial ecology there exists a positive relationship between population size and ecological fitness, brought about by micro-evolution on short timescales. This premise is analogous to the positive relationship between wealth and returns on wealth, that economists use to explain the very high inequality in wealth distributions.***This NSERC discovery research aims to generate experimental support for this new theory - and to apply it, by contributing to a robust and cost-effective process for renewable bio-energy production. The program's team will perform long-term continuous cultivation of microbial communities under stable conditions, while monitoring population dynamics with next generation DNA sequencing technology. Together, these approaches enable me to assess potential fitness benefits associated with newly evolved biodiversity.***If successful, the research will make a groundbreaking contribution to microbial ecology and contribute to a real-world problem of high societal relevance - an economically feasible process for sustainable energy production.