Evolution of snow algae, from cosmopolitans to endemics, revealed by DNA analysis of ancient ice.

ABSTRACT: Recent studies of microbial biogeography have revealed the global distribution of cosmopolitans and dispersal of regional endemics, but little is known about how these processes are affected by microbial evolution. Here, we compared DNA sequences from snow/glacier algae found in an 8000-year-old ice from a glacier in central Asia with those from modern snow samples collected at 34 snow samples from globally distributed sites at the poles and mid-latitudes, to determine the evolutionary relationship between cosmopolitan and endemic phylotypes of snow algae. We further applied a coalescent theory-based demographic model to the DNA sequences. We found that the genus Raphidonema (Trebouxiophyceae) was distributed over both poles and mid-latitude regions and was detected in different ice core l

SUBMITTER: Segawa T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10030584 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature