Theory 17/The rival is the same mechanism at another scale/Microbiome
Strain Turnover or Redundancy?
The claim
Strain replacement changes function before species composition changes.
01The rival explanation
Function is redundantly encoded across species, so strain-level change is buffered and cannot alter function.
02What would tell them apart
Redundancy predicts functional stability under strain turnover; the claim predicts functional change without species change.
03Prediction
Function should shift at constant species composition.
04Refutation
If function is stable through strain turnover, the rival wins.