Shining light on a deep-sea bacterial symbiont population structure with CRISPR.

ABSTRACT: Many foundation species in chemosynthesis-based ecosystems rely on environmentally acquired symbiotic bacteria for their survival. Hence, understanding the biogeographic distributions of these symbionts at regional scales is key to understanding patterns of connectivity and predicting resilience of their host populations (and thus whole communities). However, such assessments are challenging because they necessitate measuring bacterial genetic diversity at fine resolutions. For this purpose, the recently discovered clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) constitutes a promising new genetic marker. These DNA sequences harboured by about half of bacteria hold their viral immune memory, and as such, might allow discrimination of different lineages or strains of othe

SUBMITTER: Perez M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8549365 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature