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SUMMARY:Plenary Lecture 13: Variability and Alternative Community States i
 n Microbial Communities - Free\, A (University of Edinburgh)
DTSTART:20141127T163000Z
DTEND:20141127T170500Z
UID:TALK56381@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mustapha Amrani
DESCRIPTION:Co-authors: Eulyn Pagaling1\,2*\, Katsiaryna Usachova1\,3\, Li
 udmila Usachova4\, Fiona Strathdee1\, Kristin Vassileva1\, Rocky Kindt1\, 
 Rosalind J. Allen2\n\nThe ability to control and engineer complex microbia
 l communities for particular purposes or functions depends on the reproduc
 ibility and stability of community structure and function under controlled
  conditions. Natural microbial communities contain many low-abundance spec
 ies\, comprising the so-called "rare biosphere"\, which may be selected wh
 en the environmental parameters governing the system are altered. Current 
 data suggest that the stochastic selection of rare species\, together with
  the complex\, non-linear dynamics of these communities\, can lead to unpr
 edictability of community structure and function following environmental s
 election. This can also result in alternative stable states of the system 
 which may be difficult to interconvert.\n\nWe give an example of a wastewa
 ter treatment plant processing urban waste streams\, describing the operat
 ional problems caused by the emergence of stable undesirable community sta
 tes and challenges in recovering the diversity\, structure and function. W
 e then investigate the phenomena of alternative states and unpredictabilit
 y using a simple\, replicable laboratory model system (microcosm) containi
 ng diverse microbial ecotypes which cycle nutrients such as carbon and sul
 phur compounds and generate community function in the form of a redox pote
 ntial gradient. Variability in the microbial community composition of this
  model system is observed following a selective bottleneck in the system c
 aused by anaerobiosis. Concomitant variation in the development of the red
 ox gradient is also seen. However\, stable final microcosm communities re-
 inoculated into the same environment exhibit much less variability than th
 e original communities and a final organisational state which is closely r
 elated to their initial state at inoculation. These results suggest that s
 election under novel environmental conditions can cause unpredictability i
 n microbial community structure and function\, but that repeated selection
  can be a means to ensure predictability. We discuss these phenomena with 
 reference to microbial photobioreactor systems containing low microbial di
 versity which are amenable to engineering by "synthetic ecology".\n
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
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