Phenotypic plasticity in heterotrophic marine microbial communities in continuous cultures.

ABSTRACT: Phenotypic plasticity (PP) is the development of alternate phenotypes of a given taxon as an adaptation to environmental conditions. Methodological limitations have restricted the quantification of PP to the measurement of a few traits in single organisms. We used metatranscriptomic libraries to overcome these challenges and estimate PP using the expressed genes of multiple heterotrophic organisms as a proxy for traits in a microbial community. The metatranscriptomes captured the expression response of natural marine bacterial communities grown on differing carbon resource regimes in continuous cultures. We found that taxa with different magnitudes of PP coexisted in the same cultures, and that members of the order Rhodobacterales had the highest levels of PP. In agreement with previous st

SUBMITTER: Beier S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4409158 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature