Comparative and phylogenomic evidence that the alphaproteobacterium HIMB59 is not a member of the oceanic SAR11 clade.

ABSTRACT: SAR11 is a globally abundant group of Alphaproteobacteria in the oceans that is taxonomically not well defined. It has been suggested SAR11 should be classified into the novel order Pelagibacterales. Features such as conservation of gene content and synteny have been taken as evidence that also the divergent member HIMB59 should be included in the order. However, this proposition is controversial since phylogenetic analyses have questioned the monophyly of this grouping. Here, we performed phylogenetic analyses and reinvestigated the genomic similarity of SAR11 and HIMB59. Our phylogenetic analysis confirmed that HIMB59 is not a sister group to the other SAR11 strains. By placing the comparison in the context of the evolution of the Alphaproteobacteria, we found that none of the measures o

SUBMITTER: Viklund J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3815206 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature