Characterizing the Uncultivated Microbial Minority: towards Understanding the Roles of the Rare Biosphere in Microbial Communities

Microbial communities are frequently numerically dominated by just a few species. Often, the long tail of the rank-abundance plots of microbial commun-ities constitutes the so-called rare biosphere, microorganisms that are highly diverse but are typically found in low abundance in these communities. Their presence in microbial communities has only recently become apparent with advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies. Despite their low numbers, they are thought to play important roles in their communities and may function as potential members to keep the communities intact and resilient. Their phylogenetic diversity also means that they are important subjects for better understanding the interplay between microbial diversity and evolution. I propose that more efforts should be put into characterizing these poorly understood and mostly unknown microbial line-ages that hold vast potentials for our understanding of microbial diversity, ecology, and evolution of life on this planet.

Automated summary

Microbial communities are often dominated by a few species, with a long tail of rare biosphere microorganisms that are highly diverse but found in low abundance. They play important roles in maintaining community integrity and resilience, and their phylogenetic diversity is crucial for understanding microbial diversity and evolution. Further efforts should be made to study these poorly understood microbial lineages that hold vast potential for advancing our understanding of microbial diversity, ecology, and evolution on Earth.