Microbiomes have profound effects on host fitness, yet we struggle to understand the implications for host ecology. Microbiome influence on host ecology has been investigated using two independent frameworks. Classical ecological theory powerfully represents mechanistic interactions predicting environmental dependence of microbiome effects on host ecology, but these models are notoriously difficult to evaluate empirically. Alternatively, host–microbiome feedback theory represents impacts of microbiome dynamics on host fitness as simple net effects that are easily amenable to experimental evaluation. The feedback framework enabled rapid progress in understanding microbiomes’ impacts on plant ecology, and can also be applied to animal hosts. We conceptually integrate these two frameworks by deriving expressions for net feedback in terms of mechanistic model parameters. This generates a precise mapping between net feedback theory and classic population modelling, thereby merging mechanistic understanding with experimental tractability, a necessary step for building a predictive understanding of microbiome influence on host ecology.

中文翻译：

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微生物组对宿主群落动态的影响：微生物组反馈与经典宿主-微生物理论的概念整合

微生物组对宿主适应性有深远的影响，但我们很难理解对宿主生态的影响。已经使用两个独立的框架研究了微生物组对宿主生态的影响。经典生态学理论有力地代表了预测微生物组对宿主生态学影响的环境依赖性的机械相互作用，但众所周知，这些模型很难凭经验进行评估。或者，宿主-微生物组反馈理论将微生物组动力学对宿主适应性的影响表示为简单的净效应，易于进行实验评估。反馈框架在理解微生物组对植物生态的影响方面取得了快速进展，也可以应用于动物宿主。我们通过根据机械模型参数推导净反馈表达式，在概念上整合这两个框架。这产生了净反馈理论和经典种群建模之间的精确映射，从而将机械理解与实验易处理性相结合，这是建立对微生物组对宿主生态影响的预测性理解的必要步骤。