From microbes in the human gut to symbiotic algae in coral reefs, research in recent decades has increasingly revealed the pivotal roles that microorganisms (or microbial species) play in shaping the biology of host organisms and of broader ecosystems. For example, some endosymbionts—microbes that live within the cells of a host organism—are known to manipulate the physiology of their hosts to promote their own persistence from generation to generation.
