title: In situ evolutionary rate measurements show ecological success of recently emerged bacterial hybrids.
abstract: Few data are available on how quickly free-living microorganisms evolve. We analyzed biofilms collected from a well-defined acid mine drainage system over 9 years to investigate the processes and determine rates of bacterial evolution directly in the environment. Population metagenomic analyses of the dominant primary producer yielded the nucleotide substitution rate, which we used to show that proliferation of a series of recombinant bacterial strains occurred over the past few decades. The ecological success of hybrid bacterial types highlights the role of evolutionary processes in rapid adaptation within natural microbial communities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Vincent J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Denef
authors.forename: Jillian F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Banfield
mesh_terms: D000220:Adaptation, Biological; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D001483:Base Sequence; D018441:Biofilms; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002140:California; D017753:Ecosystem; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D005838:Genotype; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D054892:Metagenome; D008906:Mining; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D013997:Time Factors