Microbial Species Coexistence Depends on the Host Environment
Peter Deines, Katrin Hammerschmidt, Thomas C. G. Bosch
Abstract
This work studies microbial interactions within the microbiome of the simple cnidarian Hydra and investigates whether microbial species coexistence and community stability depend on the host environment. We find that the outcome of the interaction between the two most dominant bacterial species in Hydra ’s microbiome differs depending on the environment and results in a stable coexistence only in the host context. The interactive ecology between the host and the two most dominant microbes, but also the less abundant members of the microbiome, is critically important for achieving the native community composition. This indicates that the metaorganism environment needs to be taken into account when studying microbial interactions.