We quite often highlight publications by EBNet members that are relevant to our themes. But this is the big one, as far as our remit to look at engineered microbial systems is concerned.
A newly-published paper puts forward equations that govern some simple but vitally important processes in microbial ecology. The approach offers tools and insights for a wide variety of systems and problems including wastewater treatment, bioaugmentation, infections and QMRA, and survival of genetically manipulated organisms in the environment – all key areas for Environmental Biotechnology.
It is also one of the most gloriously clear and far-reaching papers we’ve come across recently: like the sound of a bell struck sharply with a hammer.
When complimented on the paper, lead author Prof Tom Curtis said: “Sometimes simple rules can apply to complex problems. In this paper we show how the simplest and most important parameter in ecology, the ratio of deaths to births, can predict immigration and extinction, and synonymous phenomena such as bioaugmentation. The basic idea has been around since the 17th century, we have just repackaged it for the 21st”.
EBNet has not supported this work, other than in the very trivial sense that some of it was done while Prof Curtis was an EBNet Co-I – and although we have been cheering it on, gestation of the key ideas probably goes back well before the start of the Network. But we have no hesitation in celebrating its publication, and hailing it as central to several of our key topics, thanks to its relevance to complex microbial communities with huge populations, and to ‘dirty’, real-world systems where immigration and competition are fundamental to the emergence of useful properties and potentially stable states.
We are delighted to see that some of the key examples come from observations on a nitrifying activated sludge plant (notably, over a 5-year period): a topic close to the heart of EBNet’s N2O WG led by Prof Curtis and Dr Ben Allen of Newcastle University.
For anyone wondering, this paper may also provide some explanation of why the long-promised White Paper, on which Tom is also lead author, has yet to appear (or even be submitted). We hope you will agree that this exciting contribution makes the waiting worthwhile. Now watch this space for new ideas and hypotheses opening up as a result of this excellent work!
And if as an EBNet member you think YOUR recent paper is The Big One, as important as this or more so, don’t hold back – just get in touch and let us know…
Probability, Parameters, and Duration of Immigration and Extinction in Microbial Communities. Curtis, T.P., Allen, B., Brown, M., Bell, A., Swan, D., Davenport, R. and Sloan, W., 2026. The ISME Journal, p.wrag195.
