title: The Biogeography of Putative Microbial Antibiotic Production.
abstract: Understanding patterns in the distribution and abundance of functional traits across a landscape is of fundamental importance to ecology. Mapping these distributions is particularly challenging for species-rich groups with sparse trait measurement coverage, such as flowering plants, insects, and microorganisms. Here, we use likelihood-based character reconstruction to infer and analyze the spatial distribution of unmeasured traits. We apply this framework to a microbial dataset comprised of 11,732 ketosynthase alpha gene sequences extracted from 144 soil samples from three continents to document the spatial distribution of putative microbial polyketide antibiotic production. Antibiotic production is a key competitive strategy for soil microbial survival and performance. Additionally, novel antibiotic discovery is highly relevant to human health, making natural antibiotic production by soil microorganisms a major target for bioprospecting. Our comparison of trait-based biogeographical patterns to patterns based on taxonomy and phylogeny is relevant to our basic understanding of microbial biogeography as well as the pressing need for new antibiotics.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Biologie, UMR CNRS 8197, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Hélène
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Morlon
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America.
authors.forename: Timothy K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: O'Connor
authors.affiliation: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jessica A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Bryant
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Louise K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Charkoudian
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Kathryn M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Docherty
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America.
authors.forename: Evan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Département des sciences biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Steven W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Kembel
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jessica L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Green
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America.
authors.forename: Brendan J M
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Bohannan
mesh_terms: D039903:Actinobacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D044822:Biodiversity; D065132:Bioprospecting; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D017753:Ecosystem; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D005658:Fungi / Q000145:classification / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D010802:Phylogeny; D058974:Phylogeography; D010944:Plants; D048630:Polyketide Synthases / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D061065:Polyketides / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D061065:Polyketides; D048630:Polyketide Synthases