Principles of Microbial Ecosystems 2026 – how biodiversity is generated and maintained – (11 Sep 2026)

Principles of Microbial Ecosystems 2026
– how biodiversity is generated and maintained –

How can we decipher the assembly rules of microbial ecosystems? Microbiologists have long been struggling to comprehensively and reductionistically understand microbial ecosystems and to predict and regulate ecosystem dynamics. However, we still have a long way to go to find the principles and assembly rules, since a huge number of species interact with each other to form a complex network relationship. The complexity of microbial communities dictates the function, stability, and plasticity of the ecosystem. The primary question for elucidating the assembly rules is how diverse species coexist despite the inherently selfish nature of organisms. In addition to environmental factors such as nutrient quality and quantity and physicochemical conditions, biological factors—including division of labor and cross-feeding—have been widely discussed as potential drivers of biodiversity, even at the cellular level. Pairwise interactions should be further modulated by abiotic and biotic factors to shape community assembly. Multi-omics approaches, comprehensive metabolic flux analyses, synthetic community, mathematical modeling, and their combinations would lead us to develop effective approaches to achieving the goal. We hope this meeting is a good opportunity to exchange ideas on studies of “principles of microbial ecosystems.”

Date: 11 September (Fri)
Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan University, Minami-Osawa campus (Building 12, Room 201)

10:30- Introductory remarks: Haruta, Shin (Tokyo Metropolitan University)
10:40- Microbial interactions drive community succession and diversification during soil development
Isobe, Kazuo (Peking University, China)
11:30- [lunch break]
12:50- Cyanosphere communities: Composition and spatial organization
Soyer, Orkun (University of Warwick, United Kingdom)
13:50- Division of labor drives synergistic fucoidan degradation by marine microbial communities
Sichert, Andreas (Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, Switzerland)
15:00- The marine metabolite marketplace: chemical interactions shape bacterial communities in the surface oceans
Gregor, Rachel (University of Toronto, Canada)
16:00- Plant-soil microbiome feedback and the dynamics of forest tree communities
Kadowaki, Kohmei (Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan)
17:00- Final wrap-up: Suzuki, Kenshi (Kyushu University)

Convenors
Shin Haruta (Tokyo Metropolitan University)
Kenshi Suzuki (Kyushu University)

Supporting bodies:
TMU strategic research fund for international collaboration 2025-2026 (Shin HARUTA)
Socio-Microbiology Research group (Japan Society of Microbial Ecology)