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Perspective | Ecological and Evolutionary Science

Bridging the Holistic-Reductionist Divide in Microbial Ecology

Robin Tecon, Sara Mitri, Davide Ciccarese, Dani Or, Jan Roelof van der Meer, David R. Johnson
Robin Tecon
Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
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Sara Mitri
Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
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Davide Ciccarese
Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, SwitzerlandDepartment of Environmental Microbiology, EAWAG, Dübendorf, Switzerland
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Dani Or
Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
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Jan Roelof van der Meer
Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
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David R. Johnson
Department of Environmental Microbiology, EAWAG, Dübendorf, Switzerland
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DOI: 10.1128/mSystems.00265-18
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ABSTRACT

Microbial communities are inherently complex systems. To address this complexity, microbial ecologists are developing new, more elaborate laboratory models at an ever-increasing pace. These model microbial communities and habitats have opened up the exploration of new territories that lie between the simplicity and controllability of “synthetic” systems and the convolution and complexity of natural environments. Here, we discuss this classic methodological divide, we propose a conceptual perspective that integrates new research developments, and we sketch a 3-point possible roadmap to cross the divide between controllability and complexity in microbial ecology.

  • Copyright © 2019 Tecon et al.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

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Bridging the Holistic-Reductionist Divide in Microbial Ecology
Robin Tecon, Sara Mitri, Davide Ciccarese, Dani Or, Jan Roelof van der Meer, David R. Johnson
mSystems Feb 2019, 4 (1) e00265-18; DOI: 10.1128/mSystems.00265-18

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Bridging the Holistic-Reductionist Divide in Microbial Ecology
Robin Tecon, Sara Mitri, Davide Ciccarese, Dani Or, Jan Roelof van der Meer, David R. Johnson
mSystems Feb 2019, 4 (1) e00265-18; DOI: 10.1128/mSystems.00265-18
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    • ABSTRACT
    • PERSPECTIVE
    • DELINEATING COMPLEXITY
    • EXPANDING RESEARCH MODELS
    • REFINING RULES TO TAME COMPLEXITY
    • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    • FOOTNOTES
    • REFERENCES
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KEYWORDS

metagenomics
microbial communities
microbial diversity
synthetic ecology

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