Microbes: The Foundation Stone of the Biosphere

Christon J. HurstCincinnati, Ohio, USA and Universidad del Valle, Santiago de Cali, Valle Colombia

• Part I. Recognizing the Role of Microorganisms in our World.- Our Living World Rests upon a Foundation of Microorganisms: The Constant Struggle for Habitat and Niche.- Darwin’s Science’s Impact on the Evolution of the Microbiological Sciences.- Microbes and Marine Sediments: A Lifelong Relationship on Earth’s Biosphere.- The Democracy of Dirt: Relating Micro-Scale Dynamics to Macro-Scale Ecosystem Function.- Part II. Microbial Life Persists Within Even the Most Extreme Environments.- The Concept of Evanescent Microbial Ecosystems in Earth’s Atmosphere.- When the Vital Signs of Microbial Life Go Cold, Does That Mean the Pulse Is Gone? Microbial Life Persists at the Limits of Cryoenvironments on Earth.- Lithotrophic (“Stone Eating”) Microbes Provide the Foundation for Deep Subsurface Ecosystems.- Part III. Understanding the Core Values of Microbial Metabolism,- Miraculous Fixation of Molecular Nitrogen from the Atmosphere.- Mutagens, Radicals, Rocket Fuel and Laughing Gas: Stringing Metabolic Modules to Survive on Nitrogenous Poisons.- The Grand Microbial Variety Show.- Part IV. Microbes Established and Sustain Life.- Microbes’ Many Roles in Climate Change: Contribution, Consequence, Mitigation, and Model System.- The Revolutionary Potential of the Hidden Half of Nature in Agriculture and Medicine.- Microscale Carbon Cycling Between Bacteria and Algae under the Sun.- Part V. The Basic Aspects of Microbial Symbioses.- Discovering the Symbiotic Nature of Microbial Life: Summarizing Milestone Publications from 1866 through 1947.- Microscopic World and the Phenomenon of Symbiosis in the Natural Environment.- Symbiosis in a Rapidly Changing World.- Diversity–Function Relationships and the Underlying Ecological Mechanisms in Host-Associated Microbial Communities.- Darwinian Medicine: We Evolved to Require Continuing Contact with the Microbiota of the Natural Environment. Evolution Turns the Inevitable into a Necessity.- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the Enzyme ACC Deaminase.- The Diazotroph as an Endophyte and How a Diazotroph Interacts with Its Plant Host.- The Hologenome Hypothesis and Its Application to Plant-Microbe Interactions on an Evolutionary Scale.- Beneficial Role of Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria in Bioremediation of Heavy Metal(loid) Contaminated Agricultural Fields.- Defensive Microbiomes: A Widespread Phenomenon in Nature.- Coevolution of Molluscs and Their Microbes.- Invisible Interactions between Microorganisms.- Part VI. Microbial Symbiosis as a Driving Force in Evolution.- The Game of Evolution Is Won by Competitive Cheating.- The Importance of Being Symbiont and the Role of Symbiosis as a Driving Force in Evolution.- Viruses, Underestimated Drivers of Ecology and Evolution of Life.- Coevolution of Bryophytes and their Associated Microorganisms.- Part VII. The Adventure of Microbiology Research.- BUBBLES in the MUD: A Reminiscence and Perspective.- Salty, Alkali-LacedTales (Mostly True) from the Great Basin Desert, California and Nevada.