Matching phylogeny and metabolism in the uncultured marine bacteria, one cell at a time.

ABSTRACT: The identification of predominant microbial taxa with specific metabolic capabilities remains one the biggest challenges in environmental microbiology, because of the limits of current metagenomic and cell culturing methods. We report results from the direct analysis of multiple genes in individual marine bacteria cells, demonstrating the potential for high-throughput metabolic assignment of yet-uncultured taxa. The protocol uses high-speed fluorescence-activated cell sorting, whole-genome multiple displacement amplification (MDA), and subsequent PCR screening. A pilot library of 11 single amplified genomes (SAGs) was constructed from Gulf of Maine bacterioplankton as proof of concept. The library consisted of five flavobacteria, one sphingobacterium, four alphaproteobacteria, and one gamm

SUBMITTER: Stepanauskas R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1885626 | biostudies-literature | 2007 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature