Microbial ecology

The Research Unit UMR 5557 has title and theme for Microbial Ecology, discipline at the crossroads of two major research fields: ecology and microbiology. This allows to bring together teachers and researchers from various institutions : CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, and INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique) VetAgro Sup (campus vétérinaire de Lyon). And to belong, among others, the Federative Research Institute Bio-Environment and Health (IFR 41).

Microbial ecology aims to know the physiology of microorganisms and the influence of their activities on other organisms and the environment in general, and, symmetrically, to clarify the impact of biotic and abiotic factors of the environment of these organisms, from the individual to the community in an ecosystem. Working on some key functions for the operation of the global ecosystem as denitrification or nitrogen fixation, we describe the microbial populations involved, their diversity and their fluctuations, the effects of these populations on the function in question and especially the role of these functions in the selective advantage ("fitness").

At another conceptual level, tools we use belong to microbiology, physiology, genetic, taxonomy or biochemistry. Our research unit is located at the crossroads of several research fields : Microbial Ecology is a true interdisciplinary field.