The Genome Sequences of Three sp. Strains Isolated from Wood-Decay Fungi Reveal Them as Novel Species with Antimicrobial Biosynthetic Potential.

Three strains of fungus-associated bacteria with antagonistic activity against Gram-negative plant pathogens were genome sequenced to investigate their taxonomic placement and potential for antimicrobial specialized metabolite production. The selected strains were identified as novel taxa belonging to the genus and carry multiple biosynthetic gene clusters.

Fifty important research questions in microbial ecology.

Microbial ecology provides insights into the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of microbial communities underpinning every ecosystem on Earth. Microbial communities can now be investigated in unprecedented detail, although there is still a wealth of open questions to be tackled. Here we identify 50 research questions of fundamental importance to the science or application of microbial ecology, with the intention of summarising the field and bringing focus to new research avenues.

Threesomes destabilise certain relationships: multispecies interactions between wood decay fungi in natural resources.

Understanding interspecific interactions is key to explaining and modelling community development and associated ecosystem function. Most interactions research has focused on pairwise combinations, overlooking the complexity of multispecies communities. This study investigated three-way interactions between saprotrophic fungi in wood and across soil, and indicated that pairwise combinations are often inaccurate predictors of the outcomes of multispecies competition in wood block interactions.