Allometry of animal-microbe interactions and global census of animal-associated microbes

Animals live in close association with microorganisms, mostly prokaryotes, living in or on them as commensals, mutualists or parasites, and profoundly affecting host fitness. Most animal–microbe studies focus on microbial community structure; for this project, allometry (scaling of animal attributes with animal size) was applied to animal–microbe relationships across a range of species spanning 12 orders of magnitude in animal mass, from nematodes to whales. Microbial abundances per individual animal were gleaned from published literature and also microscopically counted in three species. Abundance of prokaryotes/individual versus animal mass scales as a nearly linear power function (exponent = 1.07, R2 = 0.94). Combining this power function with allometry of animal abundance indicates that macrofauna have an outsized share of animal-associated microorganisms. The total number of animal-associated prokaryotes in Earth's land animals was calculated to be 1.3–1.4 × 1025 cells and the tota...