Abstract

The ubiquitous SAR11 bacterial clade is the most abundant type of organism in the world's oceans, but the reasons for its success are not fully elucidated. We analysed 128 surface marine metagenomes, including 37 new Antarctic metagenomes. The large size of the data set enabled internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions to be obtained from the Southern polar region, enabling the first global characterization of the distribution of SAR11, from waters spanning temperatures −2 to 30°C. Our data show a stable co-occurrence of phylotypes within both ‘tropical’ (>20°C) and ‘polar’ (<10°C) biomes, highlighting ecological niche differentiation between major SAR11 subgroups. All phylotypes display transitions in abundance that are strongly correlated with temperature and latitude. By assembling SAR11 genomes from Antarctic metagenome data, we identified specific genes, biases in gene functions and signatures of positive selection in the genomes of the polar SAR11—genomic signatures of adaptive radiation. Our data demonstrate the importance of adaptive radiation in the organism's ability to proliferate throughout the world's oceans, and describe genomic traits characteristic of different phylotypes in specific marine biomes.

Details

Title
Global biogeography of SAR11 marine bacteria
Author
Brown, Mark V 1 ; Lauro, Federico M 2 ; DeMaere, Matthew Z 2 ; Muir, Les 3 ; Wilkins, David 2 ; Thomas, Torsten 4 ; Riddle, Martin J 5 ; Fuhrman, Jed A 6 ; Andrews-Pfannkoch, Cynthia 7 ; Hoffman, Jeffrey M 7 ; McQuaid, Jeffrey B 7 ; Allen, Andrew 7 ; Rintoul, Stephen R 8 ; Cavicchioli, Ricardo 2 

 School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 
 School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 
 CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Castray Esplanade, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 
 School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Centre for Marine Bio-Innovation, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 
 Australian Antarctic Division, Channel Highway, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia 
 Department of Biological Sciences, Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA 
 J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, MD, USA 
 CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research—A partnership of the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO, and CSIRO Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship, and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, Castray Esplanade, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 
Section
Article
Publication year
2012
Publication date
2012
Publisher
EMBO Press
e-ISSN
17444292
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2299167321
Copyright
© 2012. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.