An American alligator attacks an invasive Burmese python in Florida. Can the humble microbe help us predict which species will become successful invaders?

Current global changes impact all biota. There are those species that can utilize the changes and those that will have a hard time coping with the human induced changes. Invaders are among the winners and pose a serious threat to native species. Mitigation of the problems associated with invaders has sparked interest in predicting which type of invader species and genotypes could become invaders. However, invasion is always an interplay of the invader’s and resident community’s characteristics. Therefore one should remember that in the changing world anthropogenic change affects not only the invader but also community composition. Moreover, different areas are known to harbour different kinds of species assemblages. It is, thus, worthwhile to ask which kinds of communities could be more vulnerable to invasions.

Let’s make it clear that this idea is by no means new. Many researchers since Charles Darwin and Charles S. Elton have done research on this subject: correlating species diversity, phylogenetic diversity, and relatedness between the community and the invader. Despite decades of work on invasions and coexistence mechanisms the evidence seems to be mixed, regardless of the study taxa and methodology. One thing, however, is rather clearly evident: more systems where key aspects of invasion theories can be manipulated are in demand, as from naturally occurring invasions it is hard to explicitly show the determinants of invasions.

在我们最近的出版物中BMC Ecology我们提出了一种用于研究入侵理论的微生物系统，并使用它来表明入侵者与社区成员之间的系统发育相似性的多样性（即其进化关系的亲密关系）会影响入侵成功。那些在系统发育距离内对入侵者多样性的社区比在与入侵者的系统发育关系较少的社区更好地抵抗入侵。

这实际上是一个相当新颖的发现，因为多样性对入侵的影响主要是在生态水平（物种多样性）上进行的，而不是在系统发育多样性的进化水平上进行的。由于入侵是通过描述入侵者与社区之间相关性的指标来解释的，因此，我们的结果对容易认识潜在的入侵者或脆弱社区表示怀疑。入侵进程中的入侵者和社区共同行动。

Blaah - 微生物 - 您可能会认为，关闭链接，而忘记了许多生态和进化论已被微生物创建和测试。但是，微生物也入侵，并且了解不同栖息地的微生物入侵 - 湖泊，游泳池，食物，牙齿，伤口和肺部 - 对我们的日常生活有直接影响。

在我们的实验中，我们使用了机会性环境增长的病原体Serratia Marcescensas an invader. This species infects literally everything. For healthy humans, it is rather harmless, but it hosts range span from corals and plants to insects. Several species of insects, when infected, die within few days.

我们系统中最酷的事情是，我们可以通过非常简单的琼脂镀层从其他细菌识别它。除了红色色素，S. Marcescens在DNase琼脂板中围绕其菌落创建光环，而我们系统中的其他细菌则被视为没有光晕的白色菌落。其他细菌是微生物学中传统的“实验室大鼠”大肠杆菌，，，，and假单胞菌。

该系统可用于检验有关入侵的几个关键假设。不仅通过操纵社区中的物种，而且还通过其进化背景。容易培养的细菌可以轻松地通过实验进化。这种新的改编的基因型可用于创建不同的入侵场景。例如，模仿人为变化 - 这是我们接下来要去的方向。