Uncovering the causal relationships in plant-microbe ecosystems: A time series analysis of the duckweed cultivation system for biomass production and wastewater treatment.

The complex interplay among plants, microbes, and the environment strongly affects productivity of vegetation ecosystems; however, determining causal relationships among various factors in these systems remains challenging. To address this issue, this study aimed to evaluate the potential of a data analytical framework called empirical dynamic modeling, which identifies causal links and directions solely from time series data. By cultivating duckweed, a promising aquatic plant for biomass production and wastewater treatment, we obtained a 63-day time series data of plant productivity, microbial community structure, wastewater treatment performance, and environmental factors.

Biofilm-derived membrane vesicles exhibit potent immunomodulatory activity in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1.

Pathogenic bacteria form biofilms on epithelial cells, and most bacterial biofilms show increased production of membrane vesicles (MVs), also known as outer membrane vesicles in Gram-negative bacteria. Numerous studies have investigated the MVs released under planktonic conditions; however, the impact of MVs released from biofilms on immune responses remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics and immunomodulatory activity of MVs obtained from both planktonic and biofilm cultures of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1.

Stable States of a Microbial Community Are Formed by Dynamic Metabolic Networks with Members Functioning to Achieve Both Robustness and Plasticity.

A more detailed understanding of the mechanisms underlying the formation of microbial communities is essential for the efficient management of microbial ecosystems. The stable states of microbial communities are commonly perceived as static and, thus, have not been extensively examined. The present study investigated stabilizing mechanisms, minority functions, and the reliability of quantitative ana-lyses, emphasizing a metabolic network perspective.

Complete genome sequences of six duckweed-associated bacterial strains for studying community assembly in synthetic plant microbiome.

We report the complete genome sequences of six bacterial strains isolated from a floating macrophyte, duckweed. These six strains, representing the six dominant families of the natural duckweed microbiome, establish a simple model ecosystem when inoculated onto sterilized duckweed. Their genomes would provide insights into community assembly in plant microbiome.

Learning beyond-pairwise interactions enables the bottom-up prediction of microbial community structure.

Understanding the assembly of multispecies microbial communities represents a significant challenge in ecology and has wide applications in agriculture, wastewater treatment, and human healthcare domains. Traditionally, studies on the microbial community assembly focused on analyzing pairwise relationships among species; however, neglecting higher-order interactions, i.e.