Global biogeography of Prochlorococcus genome diversity in the surface ocean.

ABSTRACT: Prochlorococcus, the smallest known photosynthetic bacterium, is abundant in the ocean's surface layer despite large variation in environmental conditions. There are several genetically divergent lineages within Prochlorococcus and superimposed on this phylogenetic diversity is extensive gene gain and loss. The environmental role in shaping the global ocean distribution of genome diversity in Prochlorococcus is largely unknown, particularly in a framework that considers the vertical and lateral mechanisms of evolution. Here we show that Prochlorococcus field populations from a global circumnavigation harbor extensive genome diversity across the surface ocean, but this diversity is not randomly distributed. We observed a significant correspondence between phylogenetic and gene content diver

SUBMITTER: Kent AG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5029161 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature