Gene-centric approach to integrating environmental genomics and biogeochemical models.

ABSTRACT: Rapid advances in molecular microbial ecology have yielded an unprecedented amount of data about the evolutionary relationships and functional traits of microbial communities that regulate global geochemical cycles. Biogeochemical models, however, are trailing in the wake of the environmental genomics revolution, and such models rarely incorporate explicit representations of bacteria and archaea, nor are they compatible with nucleic acid or protein sequence data. Here, we present a functional gene-based framework for describing microbial communities in biogeochemical models by incorporating genomics data to provide predictions that are readily testable. To demonstrate the approach in practice, nitrogen cycling in the Arabian Sea oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) was modeled to examine key question

SUBMITTER: Reed DC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3918765 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature