Soil's 'core microbiome' label may be more marketing than biology
Lee J, Aponte Rolón B, de Lorimier P, Ané JM, Benucci GMN
Soil Health
The bacteria and fungi researchers claim are 'essential' to your garden soil often turn out to be an artifact of how a single study crunched its numbers, not a universal team that shows up in every backyard.
Researchers who study soil often talk about a 'core microbiome,' a set of microbes assumed to be reliably present and important wherever a plant grows. This paper shows that in practice, which microbes get that label usually depends on the statistical method a particular study used, not on the microbes actually being the same from field to field. The authors suggest scientists should stop calling these study-specific lists 'core' and instead focus on which functions, like nutrient cycling, stay consistent even when the actual species doing the work change.
Key Findings
Cross-site analyses of bioenergy crop field soils show that taxa labeled 'core' are highly sensitive to the analytical thresholds and methods each study chooses.
Many studies that identify a taxonomic 'core' ultimately interpret its importance in functional terms, suggesting function, not species identity, is the real biological interest.
The authors propose reserving 'core microbiome' for taxa proven conserved across defined space, time, and environment with linked ecological function, and calling everything else an 'explanatory subset of taxa.'
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists argue that the term 'core microbiome' has been misused in soil research, applied to whatever microbes happen to show up as statistically important in a given study rather than to organisms that are truly consistent across places and time. They propose stricter language: only call microbes 'core' if they're proven to persist everywhere and do the same job, otherwise call them what they are, a useful but study-specific subset.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Rethinking the soil core microbiome.
The concept of a core microbiome emerged from host-associated research to describe microbial members or functions conserved across clearly defined spatial, temporal, and biological boundaries. In s...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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