Review
Version 2
This version is not peer-reviewed
Microbiome-Aware Ecotoxicology of Organisms: Relevance, Pitfalls and Challenges
Version 1
: Received: 9 April 2020 / Approved: 10 April 2020 / Online: 10 April 2020 (10:23:18 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 7 August 2020 / Approved: 8 August 2020 / Online: 8 August 2020 (05:01:26 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 7 August 2020 / Approved: 8 August 2020 / Online: 8 August 2020 (05:01:26 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Abstract
Over the last 15 years, the advent of high-throughput ‘omics’ techniques has revealed the multiple roles and interactions occurring among hosts, their microbial partners and their environment. This microbiome revolution has radically changed our views of biology, evolution and individuality. Sitting at the interface between a host and its environment, the microbiome is a relevant yet understudied compartment for ecotoxicology research. Various recent works confirm that the microbiome reacts to and interacts with contaminants, with consequences for hosts and ecosystems. In this paper, we thus advocate for the development of a “microbiome-aware ecotoxicology” of organisms. We emphasize its relevance and discuss important conceptual and technical pitfalls associated with study design and interpretation. We identify topics such as functionality, quantification, temporality, resilience, interactions and prediction as major challenges and promising venues for microbiome research applied to ecotoxicology.
Keywords
toxicology; microbiota; symbiosis; contaminants; resilience; environment
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Commenter: Sébastien Duperron
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