title: Phylogenetic stratigraphy in the Guerrero Negro hypersaline microbial mat.
abstract: The microbial mats of Guerrero Negro (GN), Baja California Sur, Mexico historically were considered a simple environment, dominated by cyanobacteria and sulfate-reducing bacteria. Culture-independent rRNA community profiling instead revealed these microbial mats as among the most phylogenetically diverse environments known. A preliminary molecular survey of the GN mat based on only ∼1500 small subunit rRNA gene sequences discovered several new phylum-level groups in the bacterial phylogenetic domain and many previously undetected lower-level taxa. We determined an additional ∼119,000 nearly full-length sequences and 28,000 >200 nucleotide 454 reads from a 10-layer depth profile of the GN mat. With this unprecedented coverage of long sequences from one environment, we confirm the mat is phylogenetically stratified, presumably corresponding to light and geochemical gradients throughout the depth of the mat. Previous shotgun metagenomic data from the same depth profile show the same stratified pattern and suggest that metagenome properties may be predictable from rRNA gene sequences. We verify previously identified novel lineages and identify new phylogenetic diversity at lower taxonomic levels, for example, thousands of operational taxonomic units at the family-genus levels differ considerably from known sequences. The new sequences populate parts of the bacterial phylogenetic tree that previously were poorly described, but indicate that any comprehensive survey of GN diversity has only begun. Finally, we show that taxonomic conclusions are generally congruent between Sanger and 454 sequencing technologies, with the taxonomic resolution achieved dependent on the abundance of reference sequences in the relevant region of the rRNA tree of life.
authors: Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, CO, USA.
authors: J Kirk
authors: JK
authors: Harris
authors: J Gregory
authors: JG
authors: Caporaso
authors: Jeffrey J
authors: JJ
authors: Walker
authors: John R
authors: JR
authors: Spear
authors: Nicholas J
authors: NJ
authors: Gold
authors: Charles E
authors: CE
authors: Robertson
authors: Philip
authors: P
authors: Hugenholtz
authors: Julia
authors: J
authors: Goodrich
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: McDonald
authors: Dan
authors: D
authors: Knights
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Marshall
authors: Henry
authors: H
authors: Tufo
authors: Rob
authors: R
authors: Knight
authors: Norman R
authors: NR
authors: Pace
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D044822:Biodiversity; D000458:Cyanobacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology; D020459:Genes, rRNA; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D008800:Mexico; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA