Fine-scale distribution patterns of Synechococcus ecological diversity in microbial mats of Mushroom Spring, Yellowstone National Park.

ABSTRACT: Past analyses of sequence diversity in high-resolution protein-encoding genes have identified putative ecological species of unicellular cyanobacteria in the genus Synechococcus, which are specialized to 60°C but not 65°C in Mushroom Spring microbial mats. Because these studies were limited to only two habitats, we studied the distribution of Synechococcus sequence variants at 1°C intervals along the effluent flow channel and at 80-μm vertical-depth intervals throughout the upper photic layer of the microbial mat. Diversity at the psaA locus, which encodes a photosynthetic reaction center protein (PsaA), was sampled by PCR amplification, cloning, and sequencing methods at 60, 63, and 65°C sites. The evolutionary simulation programs Ecotype Simulation and AdaptML were used to identify putat

SUBMITTER: Becraft ED 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3209189 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature