Professional 'guilds' of bacteria gave rise to the modern microbiome

Even the smallest marine invertebrates -- some barely larger than single-celled protists -- are home to distinct and diverse microbial communities, or microbiomes, according to biologists. The study underscores that a vast diversity of animals have microbiomes, just as humans do. But more surprisingly, there's little correlation between how closely related most animals are and how similar their microbiomes are -- something widely assumed to be true based on the study of humans, larger mammals, a...