However, the difference would not just be defined by random events over the time they diverged, but also by different microbial environments that the animals evolve within.
Humans have evolved complex defences to protect themselves from a hostile environment that contains microbial pathogens, physical and chemical threats.
Molecular biological techniques are dramatically changing our view of microbial diversity in almost any environment that has so far been investigated.
The mussels, Fernandina, and the Midwestern soils likely have a rich nitrogen environment that promotes similar microbial opportunities.
Although numerous small studies have suggested that perioperative allogenic blood transfusion may induce immune modulations that create an environment that promotes both microbial growth and tumorigenesis their conclusions are limited by small cohort size, in vitro and ex vivo assays and insensitive protein assays [ 3, 21- 26].
Microbial growth and activity is a function of the environment that surrounds them.
In addition, microbial fermentation of non-digestible oligosaccharides in the gut contributes to an acidic environment that may inhibit the growth of pathogens [ 3, 5, 6].
The primary ecological niche for A. fumigatus in nature is composting organic material, an environment that undergoes constant fluctuations in temperature as a consequence of complex microbial activity.
In the section on microbial evolution above, we discussed the factors in addition to density present in a culture environment that facilitate rapid evolution of enhanced virulence.
Increasing evidence suggests that the microbial environment influences the innate and adaptive immune system and largely determines the outcome of such investigations, even in disease models where the microbiome is not under investigation.
