Lateral Gene Transfer in a Heavy Metal-Contaminated-Groundwater Microbial Community.

ABSTRACT:

Unlabelled

Unraveling the drivers controlling the response and adaptation of biological communities to environmental change, especially anthropogenic activities, is a central but poorly understood issue in ecology and evolution. Comparative genomics studies suggest that lateral gene transfer (LGT) is a major force driving microbial genome evolution, but its role in the evolution of microbial communities remains elusive. To delineate the importance of LGT in mediating the response of a groundwater microbial community to heavy metal contamination, representative Rhodanobacter reference genomes were sequenced and compared to shotgun metagenome sequences. 16S rRNA gene-based amplicon sequence analysis indicated that Rhodanobacter populations were highly abundant in contaminated wells w

SUBMITTER: Hemme CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4817265 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature