Long-term microbial dynamics and microdiversity in phytoplankton microbiome

Phytoplankton-bacteria interactions represent the evolution of a complex cross-kingdom network requiring niche specialization of diverse microbes. The mechanisms of selection and the evolutionary forces that shape the relationship are a matter of active debate. Unraveling this co-evolutionary process has proven challenging because the microbial partnerships are complex, and their assembly can be dynamic as well as scale- and taxon-dependent. Here we monitored the experimental evolution of phytoplankton-bacteria interactions by reintroducing the intact microbiome into an axenized dinoflagellate strain using 16S rRNA gene V4 amplicon sequencing.