Beneficial Microorganisms in Multicellular Life Forms
All animals and plants form associations with hundreds or thousands of different beneficial microorganisms. These symbiotic microbes play an important role in the development, adaptation, health and evolution of their hosts. This book brings together a gr
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Eugene Rosenberg
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Uri Gophna
Editors
Beneficial Microorganisms in Multicellular Life Forms
Editors Eugene Rosenberg University of Tel Aviv Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology Ramat Aviv Israel [email protected]
Uri Gophna University of Tel Aviv Dept. of Microbiology and Biotechnology Ramat Aviv Israel [email protected]
ISBN 978-3-642-21679-4 e-ISBN 978-3-642-21680-0 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-21680-0 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2011937068 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Symbioses between microorganisms and animals and plants have been studied for more than 100 years. Until recently, these studies have concentrated on a primary symbiont and its host, e.g., Rhizobia species and their respective legumes, Buchnera and aphids, and Vibrio fischeri and squid. With the advent of molecular (culture-independent) techniques in microbiology during the last 15 years, it is now clear that all animals and plants contain hundreds or thousands of different microbial symbionts. In many cases the number of symbiotic microorganisms and their combined genetic information far exceed that of their hosts. For example, it has been estimated that the diverse bacterial symbionts in the human gut contain 200 fold more unique genes than the human host. The diverse types of symbioses between microorganisms and eukaryotes have received growing attention in the last few years with regard to many different features of their complex interactions, such as the diversity and abundance of the symbionts, the type of advantage (or harm) the partners experience, how the interaction is initiated and maintained, and in recent years the role of the microorganisms in the evolution of the holobiont (host plus symbionts). These points taken together suggest that the genetic wealth of diverse microbial symbionts can play an important role both in adaptation and in evolution of higher organisms. It is now clear that it is impossible to understand the health of plants, animals, and man without taking into consideration their m
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