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Microbial diversity in natural environments: focusing on fundamental questions

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Abstract

Interactions with Gijs Kuenen and other Dutch scientists have led my lab to fundamental insights into the composition, structure and function of a hot spring cyanobacterial mat community that should influence our thinking about all microbial communities. By focusing on the distribution of molecular sequence variants of predominant mat phototrophs, we have discovered that small-scale sequence variation can be ecologically meaningful. By applying novel cultivation approaches, we have been able to obtain genetically relevant community members and thus to test the hypothesis that closely related sequence variants arose via adaptive evolutionary radiation. By applying the analytical tools of organic geochemistry we have gained insight into the metabolisms of major phototrophic members of the mat community as well as interactions between phototrophic guilds. These observations challenge traditional paradigms about prokaryotic species and cause us to consider evolutionary ecology theory as we develop genome-based methods for high-resolution analysis of the species-like fundamental units comprising microbial communities, and for investigating how such units coordinate the physiological activities within guilds of the community.

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Abbreviations

GNSB:

green nonsulfur or nonsulfur-like bacteria

DGGE:

denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis

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Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to Jerry Ensign (University of Wisconsin-Madison) for teaching me microbiology in the tradition of the Delft School of Microbiology in his graduate class on Microbial Diversity. I thank Tony Scotti for providing Fig. 4B, Marcel van der Meer for providing Figs. 6B and C and Fred Cohan for providing the concept for Fig. 8. I appreciate the long term support of the U.S. National Science Foundation (Ecology and Frontiers in Integrative Biology Research programs), the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Exobiology and Astrobiology programs), the Montana State University Thermal Biology Institute and the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, who supported Sjila Santegoeds’ visit to my lab. I also appreciate the support of the U.S. National Park Service for permission to collect in Yellowstone National Park and for invaluable assistance over the years.

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  1. Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, 59715-3120, USA

    David M. Ward

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Ward, D.M. Microbial diversity in natural environments: focusing on fundamental questions. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 90, 309–324 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-006-9090-x

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