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The nineteenth century roots of 'everything is everywhere'

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 5, pages 647–651 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The identification of geographical patterns in microbial distributions has begun to challenge purely ecological explanations of biogeography and the underlying principle of “everything is everywhere: but the environment selects”. How did 'everything is everywhere' arise out of nineteenth century microbiology, and from Beijerinck's experimental and theoretical work in particular? What is the relationship of this principle to the plant and animal biogeography that flourished throughout this formative period of microbiology's history? Understanding Beijerinck's legacy for twentieth century microbial biogeography reveals issues that are still pertinent to contemporary discussions of microbial biodiversity and biogeography.

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Figure 1: Pages 84 and 85 from number 17 of the laboratory journals of M. W. Beijerinck.

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Acknowledgements

Many thanks for comments and suggestions are owed to S. Müller-Wille, J. Calvert, J. Dupré and S. Hughes (Egenis, University of Exeter), G. McOuat (University of King's College, Nova Scotia), T. Papke, F. Doolittle and other members of the Doolittle, Roger and Archibald laboratories, as well as the Evolution Study Group (Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia) and the anonymous reviewers of this paper. The British Academy provided an Overseas Conference Grant for the presentation of draft papers, and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council funded the research, which was done under the auspices of the UK's Economic and Social Research Council's Centre for Genomics in Society. L. A. Robertson was especially helpful in regard to selecting images from the archives of the Delft School of Microbiology.

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  1. Maureen O'Malley is at Egenis, the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4RJ, UK. m.a.o'malley@ex.ac.uk,

    Maureen A. O'Malley

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FURTHER INFORMATION

Maureen A. O'Malley's homepage:

The archives of the Delft School of Microbiology at the Delft University of Technology:

Susan Spath's dissertation on C. B. van Niel and the culture of microbiology:

Glossary

Biogeography

The descriptive and explanatory study of the spatial patterning of biodiversity.

Cosmopolitan

Globally distributed.

Disjunction

The spatial separation of populations due to dispersal or vicariance.

Dispersal

The flow of organisms from one location to another, either passively (for example, blown by wind) or actively (for example, flight).

Endemic

Restricted to specific geographic locations.

Elective culture

A culturing technique designed to favour specific nutritional or physical needs, taken up by Beijerinck as enrichment culturing.

Vicariance

The separation of once continuous populations into separate populations by geological or climatic events.

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O'Malley, M. The nineteenth century roots of 'everything is everywhere'. Nat Rev Microbiol 5, 647–651 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1711

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