In case you missed it: our review titled "Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities" is out! 🚨
Let me hit you with some highlights on why spatial structure matters. (and why you should care!)
Sharing is appreciated 🙏 🧵👇
doi.org/10.1093/fems...
5/5 New tools help to close this gap. Individual-based models, microfluidics, hydrogels, and spatial omics allow insights into spatially structured communities. Spatial complexity is not noise; it is a signal! Embracing it is how we will learn the rules that govern microbial life.🔬
4/5 Microscale interactions scale up to shape global biogeochemical cycles. Carbon flux, nutrient cycling, and viral lysis all depend on local spatial structure that many models simply average away. Connecting micro to macro is one of the biggest open challenges in the field!
3/5 Natural microbiomes are fragmented: across soil pores, gut crypts, and marine particles. Subpopulations are dominated by drift and limited dispersal, which stabilizes cooperation and maintains diversity. Their tiny interactions scale up to biogeochemical processes, such as the ocean carbon flux.
2/5 In biofilms, aggregates, and colonies on agar plates, internal gradients generate distinct metabolic subpopulations. Expansion into unoccupied space promotes stochasticity and shapes HGT. Even antibiotic resistance is spatial: beta-lactamases famously protect sensitive cells nearby.
1/5 Microbial interactions happen over surprisingly short distances. Rapid metabolite uptake creates steep gradients that limit interaction ranges to just a few cell lengths. This shapes cross-feeding, quorum sensing, and Black Queen dynamics. Spatial range determines who interacts with whom.
Most microbes don't live in shaking flasks; spatial structure shapes how microbes interact and evolve at every scale, as we discuss in our recent review @jeroenmeijer.bsky.social @simonvanvliet.bsky.social @bedutilh.bsky.social @bramvandijk.bsky.social and others
academic.oup.com/femsre/artic... 🧵👇
Wrapping up a productive week: very glad to have contributed to this review on how spatial structure shapes microbial ecology and evolution, led by @marcelbaecker.bsky.social, @bedutilh.bsky.social, @bramvandijk.bsky.social and many others. doi.org/10.1093/fems...
Great seminar last week at the @jsmc-info.bsky.social, organized by @marcelbaecker.bsky.social!
Prof. Christian Kost (@kostchristian.bsky.social) shared fascinating insights into microbial interactions and cooperation.
Always inspiring to learn from leading researchers in the field
#JSMC
