Scales of persistence: transmission and the microbiome.

Historically microbiomes have been studied on the scale of the individual host, giving little consideration for the role of extra-host microbial populations in microbiome assembly. However, work in recent years has brought to light the importance of inter-host transmission and its influence on microbiome composition and dynamics. We now appreciate that microbiomes do not exist in isolation, but exchange constituents with the microbial communities of other hosts and the environment.

The role of adaptive immunity as an ecological filter on the gut microbiota in zebrafish.

All animals live in intimate association with communities of microbes, collectively referred to as their microbiota. Certain host traits can influence which microbial taxa comprise the microbiota. One potentially important trait in vertebrate animals is the adaptive immune system, which has been hypothesized to act as an ecological filter, promoting the presence of some microbial taxa over others.

Contribution of neutral processes to the assembly of gut microbial communities in the zebrafish over host development.

Despite their importance to host health and development, the communities of microorganisms associated with humans and other animals are characterized by a large degree of unexplained variation across individual hosts. The processes that drive such inter-individual variation are not well understood. To address this, we surveyed the microbial communities associated with the intestine of the zebrafish, Danio rerio, over developmental time.

Architectural design influences the diversity and structure of the built environment microbiome.

Buildings are complex ecosystems that house trillions of microorganisms interacting with each other, with humans and with their environment. Understanding the ecological and evolutionary processes that determine the diversity and composition of the built environment microbiome--the community of microorganisms that live indoors--is important for understanding the relationship between building design, biodiversity and human health. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene to quantify relationships between building attributes and airborne bacterial communities at a health-care facility.