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Millimeter‐scale genetic gradients and community‐level molecular convergence in a hypersaline microbial mat |
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| Authors: | Victor Kunin Jeroen Raes J Kirk Harris John R Spear Jeffrey J Walker Natalia Ivanova Christian von Mering Brad M Bebout Norman R Pace Peer Bork Philip Hugenholtz |
| Institution: | 1. Microbial Ecology Program, DOE Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA, USA;2. Structural and Computational Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany;3. Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, CO, USA;4. Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA;5. Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA;6. Genome Biology Program, DOE Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA, USA;7. Institute of Molecular Biology and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland;8. Microbial Ecology/Biogeochemistry Research Laboratory, Exobiology branch, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA |
| Abstract: | To investigate the extent of genetic stratification in structured microbial communities, we compared the metagenomes of 10 successive layers of a phylogenetically complex hypersaline mat from Guerrero Negro, Mexico. We found pronounced millimeter‐scale genetic gradients that were consistent with the physicochemical profile of the mat. Despite these gradients, all layers displayed near‐identical and acid‐shifted isoelectric point profiles due to a molecular convergence of amino‐acid usage, indicating that hypersalinity enforces an overriding selective pressure on the mat community. |
| Keywords: | metagenomics hypersalinity microbial ecology fine‐scale salt‐in |