Browsing by Author "Thomas, Torsten"
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- A horizon scan of priorities for coastal marine microbiome researchPublication . Trevathan-Tackett, Stacey M.; Sherman, Craig D. H.; Huggett, Megan J.; Campbell, Alexandra H.; Laverock, Bonnie; Hurtado-McCormick, Valentina; Seymour, Justin R.; Firl, Alana; Messer, Lauren F.; Ainsworth, Tracy D.; Negandhi, Karita L.; Daffonchio, Daniele; Egan, Suhelen; Engelen, Aschwin; Fusi, Marco; Thomas, Torsten; Vann, Laura; Hernandez-Agreda, Alejandra; Gan, Han Ming; Marzinelli, Ezequiel M.; Steinberg, Peter D.; Hardtke, Leo; Macreadie, Peter, IResearch into the microbiomes of natural environments is changing the way ecologists and evolutionary biologists view the importance of microorganisms in ecosystem function. This is particularly relevant in ocean environments, where microorganisms constitute the majority of biomass and control most of the major biogeochemical cycles, including those that regulate Earth's climate. Coastal marine environments provide goods and services that are imperative to human survival and well-being (for example, fisheries and water purification), and emerging evidence indicates that these ecosystem services often depend on complex relationships between communities of microorganisms (the 'microbiome') and the environment or their hosts - termed the 'holobiont'. Understanding of coastal ecosystem function must therefore be framed under the holobiont concept, whereby macroorganisms and their associated microbiomes are considered as a synergistic ecological unit. Here, we evaluate the current state of knowledge on coastal marine microbiome research and identify key questions within this growing research area. Although the list of questions is broad and ambitious, progress in the field is increasing exponentially, and the emergence of large, international collaborative networks and well-executed manipulative experiments are rapidly advancing the field of coastal marine microbiome research.
- Diversity, structure and convergent evolution of the global sponge microbiomePublication . Thomas, Torsten; Moitinho-Silva, Lucas; Lurgi, Miguel; Bjoerk, Johannes R.; Easson, Cole; Astudillo-Garcia, Carmen; Olson, Julie B.; Erwin, Patrick M.; Lopez-Legentil, Susanna; Luter, Heidi; Chaves-Fonnegra, Andia; Costa, Rodrigo; Schupp, Peter J.; Steindler, Laura; Erpenbeck, Dirk; Gilbert, Jack; Knight, Rob; Ackermann, Gail; Lopez, Jose Victor; Taylor, Michael W.; Thacker, Robert W.; Montoya, Jose M.; Hentschel, Ute; Webster, Nicole S.Sponges (phylum Porifera) are early-diverging metazoa renowned for establishing complex microbial symbioses. Here we present a global Porifera microbiome survey, set out to establish the ecological and evolutionary drivers of these host-microbe interactions. We show that sponges are a reservoir of exceptional microbial diversity and major contributors to the total microbial diversity of the world's oceans. Little commonality in species composition or structure is evident across the phylum, although symbiont communities are characterized by specialists and generalists rather than opportunists. Core sponge microbiomes are stable and characterized by generalist symbionts exhibiting amensal and/or commensal interactions. Symbionts that are phylogenetically unique to sponges do not disproportionally contribute to the core microbiome, and host phylogeny impacts complexity rather than composition of the symbiont community. Our findings support a model of independent assembly and evolution in symbiont communities across the entire host phylum, with convergent forces resulting in analogous community organization and interactions.
- Microbial indicators of environmental perturbations in coral reef ecosystemsPublication . Glasl, Bettina; Bourne, David G.; Rodrigues Frade, Pedro; Thomas, Torsten; Schaffelke, Britta; Webster, Nicole S.Background Coral reefs are facing unprecedented pressure on local and global scales. Sensitive and rapid markers for ecosystem stress are urgently needed to underpin effective management and restoration strategies. Although the fundamental contribution of microbes to the stability and functioning of coral reefs is widely recognised, it remains unclear how different reef microbiomes respond to environmental perturbations and whether microbiomes are sensitive enough to predict environmental anomalies that can lead to ecosystem stress. However, the lack of coral reef microbial baselines hinders our ability to study the link between shifts in microbiomes and ecosystem stress. In this study, we established a comprehensive microbial reference database for selected Great Barrier Reef sites to assess the diagnostic value of multiple free-living and host-associated reef microbiomes to infer the environmental state of coral reef ecosystems. Results A comprehensive microbial reference database, originating from multiple coral reef microbiomes (i.e. seawater, sediment, corals, sponges and macroalgae), was generated by 16S rRNA gene sequencing for 381 samples collected over the course of 16 months. By coupling this database to environmental parameters, we showed that the seawater microbiome has the greatest diagnostic value to infer shifts in the surrounding reef environment. In fact, 56% of the observed compositional variation in the microbiome was explained by environmental parameters, and temporal successions in the seawater microbiome were characterised by uniform community assembly patterns. Host-associated microbiomes, in contrast, were five-times less responsive to the environment and their community assembly patterns were generally less uniform. By applying a suite of indicator value and machine learning approaches, we further showed that seawater microbial community data provide an accurate prediction of temperature and eutrophication state (i.e. chlorophyll concentration and turbidity). Conclusion Our results reveal that free-living microbial communities have a high potential to infer environmental parameters due to their environmental sensitivity and predictability. This highlights the diagnostic value of microorganisms and illustrates how long-term coral reef monitoring initiatives could be enhanced by incorporating assessments of microbial communities in seawater. We therefore recommend timely integration of microbial sampling into current coral reef monitoring initiatives.