16        CONGRESS REPORT
                         Swiss Microbial Ecology:
                         dynamism and challenges
                         Nathalie Fromin, Jérôme Hamelin,            also reflected in the published work of     therefore allows microbial ecologists
                         Françoise Lucas                             Swiss  microbial  ecologists  (data  re-    to publish their work in journals dedi-
                         Organising Committee of the First Meeting   trieved from the Web of Science data-       cated  to  plant  or  animal  biology  or
                         of Swiss Microbial Ecology                  base 2000–2004, n = 125 journals and        ecology (Figure 1).
                                                                     260 papers). Most microbial ecology         During the meeting, a round table en-
                         From 23–24 September 2004 the First         research in Switzerland is published in     titled “Perspectives in Swiss Microbial
                         Meeting of Swiss Microbial Ecology          journals specialising in microbiology       Ecology” raised interesting questions
                         took place in Neuchâtel (Switzerland)       (45.2%),  environmental  science  and       regarding  microbial  ecologists’  iden-
                         with the support of the Swiss Society       biotechnology  (13.4%),  and  aquatic       tity. As well shown by the communica-
                         of Microbiology, The National Centre        science (11.1%, figure 1).                  tions during the meeting and by publi-
                         of  Competence  in  Research  (NCCR)        It is worth noting two important issues     cations in the period 2000–2004, mi-
                         Plant Survival, and the Swiss Academy       in relation to the topics addressed at      crobial ecology is not only a matter for
                         of  Sciences. Over 70 microbial ecol-       the meeting. First, most of the studies     microbiologists  but  is  at  the  cross-
                         ogists  from  13  Swiss  institutes,  and   target microbial environments which         roads of several disciplines including
                         some 10 researchers from five French,       undergo  anthropogenic  disturbance         plant ecology and physiology, animal
                         German  and  Italian  institutes,  at-      and pollutions, while a few are carried     and gut ecology, soil science, geology
                         tended the meeting. The main objec-         out in pristine environments. Second,       and pathology. There is a demand from
                         tives  were  to  offer  Swiss  microbial    research dealing with microbial inter-      other disciplines for expertise in mi-
                         ecologists an opportunity to meet and       actions has become an issue of grow-        crobial ecology, as ecologists, clinical
                         exchange news of scientific advances        ing  importance,  as  microorganisms        microbiologists and geologists realise
                         in microbial ecology and their views on     are  constantly  interacting  with  their   that microbial ecology may constitute
                         the future of this discipline. The meet-    environment  and  with  other  organ-       a key approach in dealing with con-
                         ing  also  allowed  young  researchers      isms. In this context, several talks and    cepts involved in general ecology, epi-
                         (61%  of  those  present)  to  highlight    posters  at  the  meeting  stressed  the    demiology or biogeochemical cycles.
                         their work, develop networking with         need to take into account other organ-      Cross-disciplinary  papers  (medicine,
                         senior scientists and meet future em-       isms  present  in  microbial  environ-      geology, chemistry) account for 13.4%
                         ployers in a convivial environment.         ments  (plants,  animals,  protozoa,        of Swiss microbial ecology literature
                         The outstanding success of this first       fungi, viruses) and not to consider bac-    (Figure 1). Additionally, we acknowl-
                         meeting  well  illustrates  the  growing    teria as an independent entity evolving     edged  an  urgent  need  for  bioinfor-
                         Swiss  research  interest  in  microbial    in a biologically inert environment. Re-    matic,  computational  and  statistical
                         ecology. This discipline has largely de-    search dealing with biotic interactions     tools to interpret the huge flood of data
                         veloped as a response to growing social
                         and economic demand. The meeting
                         was  in  fact  supported  by  major 
                         Swiss  corporations  (Nestlé,  Catalys-
                         Promega, Sarstedt and Novartis), thus
                         reflecting  the  industrial  relevance  of
                         Swiss research in microbial ecology.
                         Swiss microbial ecologists are working
                         on topical issues such as the response
                         of  eco-  and  agrosystems  to  global
                         changes (land use conversion, climatic
                         changes  etc),  functioning  of  lake
                         ecosystems and biological control of
                         pathogens, as illustrated by the topics
                         of the oral and poster sessions: 1– Soil
                         and Plant Microbial Ecology 2– Inter-
                         actions  3–  Biodegradations  and  Pol-
                         luted Environments 4– Aquatic Micro-        Figure 1. Publications from Swiss microbial ecologists by type of journal.
                         bial  Ecology  and  Geomicrobiology  Survey during the years 2000–2004, authors present during the first SME
                         5– Methods. This spread of themes is        meeting (n = 125 journals and 260 papers).
        NR. 3 | SEPT 2005                                                                                    CONGRESS REPORT                     17
        generated by the new analytical (espe-      questions. The essential advances and       In conclusion, we would like to invite
        cially molecular-based) approaches.         improvements  in  new  technologies         all microbial ecologists to wonder the
        Microbial  ecology  is  driven  by  im-     should  serve  for  more  in-depth  the     question of their identity within the
        provements in technology, since mi-         study of ecological concepts. In that       scientific community. We would also
        croorganisms cannot be examined by          sense, there is an increasing need to en-   like to encourage any scientist who is
        the naked eye and few can be studied        gage in broad-scale multidisciplinary       interested in environmental microbiol-
        by the ‘traditional’ culture-based mi-      projects  and  to  integrate  molecular     ogy to join the second meeting of Swiss
        crobiological  approach.  In  the  past     biology  (which  is  a  driving  force  in  Microbial Ecology in 2006, which will
        decade  new  approaches  based  on          microbial  ecology)  into  community        be organized in Bellinzona the 28th
        metagenomics have been developed on         and even ecosystem ecology.                 and 29th of September by the Cantonal
        the  international  level.  Such  tech-     Swiss microbial ecologists have raised      Institute of Microbiology of Ticino.
        niques    have    brought     significant   the  question  whether  the  mode  of
        progress in our understanding of the        funding research is responsible for the     Information: 
        diversity,  distribution  and  dynamics  lack of pristine environment research          Swiss Society of Microbiology 
        of  microorganisms, but they require        and the lack of fundamental studies on      (http://www.swissmicrobiology.ch)
        expensive  equipment.  Although  the        ecological concepts. We would do well
        Swiss scientific community is highly        to consider how we can influence this       Nathalie Fromin 
        dynamic,  it  cannot  always  compete       mode of funding, for instance by pro-       Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, CNRS
        with other countries for ‘heavy’ equip-     moting long-term research. The need         1919 route de Mende, F-34293 Montpellier
        ment (sequencing facilities or microar-     to develop broad-scale and multidisci-      Jérôme Hamelin 
        rays, for instance). However, it can take   plinary projects raises the question of     Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l’Environnement
        advantage  of  Switzerland’s  trump         the  financing  of  microbial  ecology      Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)
                                                                                                Avenue des Etangs, F-11100 Narbonne 
        cards  in  other  technologies  such  as    research:  what  can  we  do  to  give
        proteomics or bioinformatics.               microbial ecology the benefit of the in-    Françoise Lucas
        New technologies should be regarded         ternational programmes and networks         University of Lausanne
                                                                                                Dept. Ecology and Evolution
        as tools for use in responding to key hy-   that  are  a  major  component  of  re-     CH-1015 Lausanne
        potheses and paradigms such as the          search funding? Analysis of the past
        definition of bacterial species, evolu-     four    years’    literature
        tionary ecology in bacteria, the inter-     shows  that  international
        actions between higher organisms and        collaborations  represent 
        bacteria  and  the  role  of  bacteria  in  a  major  proportion  of
        ecosystem functioning. Moreover, an         Swiss research in micro-
        organism cannot be reduced to its nu-       bial ecology (31%), mainly
        cleic acid or protein sequences. And, in    with EU (65%) and Amer-
        consequence,  some  microbial  ecolo-       ican   (18%)  colleagues.
        gists have heralded the rebirth of mi-      Through such cooperation
        crobial  physiology  and  organism-         Swiss microbial ecologists
        based  research,  approaches  that  are     can gain access to inter-
        needed in studying the functions per-       national programmes and
        formed by bacteria.                         funding opportunities.
        Microbial  ecology  in  Switzerland         Microbial ecologists should
        maintains  itself  at  a  high  scientific  become more “visible” to
        level,  since  from  2000–2004 the me-      other disciplines, in order
        dian  impact  factors  of  journals  in-    to foster the emergence of
        creased  from  2.116  to  3.205  (with  interdisciplinary research
        no significant difference between the  in  fields  such  as  clinical
        4  years,  Wilcoxon  
2     =  10.1,  p  =  research,  geology,  chem-
                                256,4
        0.04).  However,  one  may  regret  the     istry, general ecology and
        shortage of contributions by Swiss mi-      exobiology. With the same
        crobial ecologists to journals of gen-      object in view they should
        eral ecology (6%) or of general interest    also develop partnerships
        (2%), as shown in Figure 1. Our re-         with  industry.  The  cre-
        search  is  largely  confined  to  micro-   ation of a Swiss Meeting of
        biology journals such as Applied and        Microbial  Ecology  under
        Environmental Microbiology (10.3%),         the aegis of the Swiss So-
        Environmental  Microbiology  (6.1%)         ciety of Microbiology was
        and the Journal of Bacteriology (5.3%).     intended as a step towards
        This  fact  underscores  a  lack  of  re-   such  increased  visibility
        search on theoretical and fundamental       for  microbial  ecologists.