[SS27] Dynamics and Structures of Biological Networks III: Ecological Networks and Intercellular Traffic Networks

[SS27-02] Controllability of species-rich biological communities: integrating long time-series analyses and genomics

*Hirokazu Toju¹ (1. Kyoto University (Japan))

Keywords:

time-series dynamics,genomics,microbiomes,networks,controllability

In ecosystems, numerous species interact with each other, resulting in complex dynamics of constituent populations. Since the emergence of high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies, it has become feasible to obtain long time-series data of species-rich biological communities. Such datasets now allow us to infer the overall architecture of species interaction networks, providing fundamental insights into the mechanisms by which community- or ecosystem-scale processes are organized. By accumulating long term (> 100 time points) datasets of aquatic and soil microbial communities, we have inferred the structure of the directed graphs representing causal interactions between hundreds of species. The analysis then highlighted species located at “upstream” critical positions, which could have profound impacts on “downstream” processes within the communities. To complement such community-ecological insights, we have conducted whole-genome shotgun sequencing of the target communities, obtaining hundreds of draft bacterial genomes for the inference of species functions. I will talk about how community-ecology-based and genomics-based approaches collectively deepen our understanding of the “controllability” of ecosystems.