Organisms In This Publication
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2006      Cyanobacterial ecotypes in the microbial mat community of Mushroom Spring (Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming) as species-like units linking microbial community composition, structure and function
David M. Ward, Mary M. Bateson, Michael J. Ferris, Michael Kühl, Andrea Wieland, Alex Koeppel, and Frederick M. Cohan
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2006
Abstract

We have investigated microbial mats of alkaline siliceous hot springs in Yellowstone National Park as natural model communities to learn how microbial populations group into species-like fundamental units. Here, we bring together empirical patterns of the distribution of molecular variation in predominant mat cyanobacterial populations, theory-based modelling of how to demarcate phylogenetic clusters that correspond to ecological species and the dynamic patterns of the physical and chemical microenvironments these populations inhabit and towards which they have evolved adaptations. We show that putative ecotypes predicted by the theory-based model correspond well with distribution patterns, suggesting populations with distinct ecologies, as expected of ecological species. Further, we show that increased molecular resolution enhances our ability to detect ecotypes in this way, though yet higher molecular resolution is probably needed to detect all ecotypes in this microbial community. Keywords: species; ecotype; adaptation; cyanobacteria; hot spring

NOTE: the article text supplied here is for educational purposes only.
*Don't have Adobe Reader? Get the latest version.

NOTE: Some versions of Adobe Reader have problems with Google Chrome. Either resize the browser to view the paper or enable the Chrome internal PDF viewer by entering chrome://plugins in your address bar and clicking enable for the Chrome PDF Viewer plugin.