Roles and mechanisms of parasitism in aquatic microbial communities

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Editorial

12 May 2015

Editorial: Roles and mechanisms of parasitism in aquatic microbial communities

Télesphore Sime-Ngando

,

Kevin D. Lafferty

and

David G. Biron

4,630 views

5 citations

Editors

3

Télesphore Sime-Ngando

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

Kevin D Lafferty

Western Ecological Research Center, United States Geological Survey (USGS)

David Georges Biron

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

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Next Generation Sequencing technologies are increasingly revealing that microbial taxa likely to be parasites or symbionts are probably much more prevalent and diverse than previously thought. Every well studied free-living species has parasites; parasites themselves can be parasitized. As a rule of thumb, there is an estimated 4 parasitic species for any given host, and the better a host is studied the more parasites are known to infect it. Therefore, parasites and other symbionts should represent a very large number of species and may far outnumber those with 'free-living' lifestyles. Paradoxically, free-living hosts, which form the bulk of our knowledge of biology, may be a minority! Microbial parasites typically are characterized by their small size, short generation time, and high rates of reproduction, with simple life cycle occurring generally within a single host. They are diverse and ubiquitous in the environment, comprising viruses, prokaryotes and eukaryotes. This Frontiers Research Topic welcomes contributions that address all aspects of parasites and other symbionts in microbial ecology: method development, life cycle, interactions with hosts and competing microbes, coevolution, effects on food webs and biogeochemical cycles, etc.

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Editors

Télesphore Sime-Ngando

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

Kevin D Lafferty

Western Ecological Research Center, United States Geological Survey (USGS)

David Georges Biron

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

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206,400 Total views

161,562 Article views

39,474 Article downloads

5,364 Topic views

Published In

Frontiers in Microbiology

Aquatic Microbiology

Frontiers in Marine Science

Aquatic Microbiology

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