title: Phenotypic Microdiversity and Phylogenetic Signal Analysis of Traits Related to Social Interaction inBacillusspp. from Sediment Communities.
abstract: Understanding the relationship between phylogeny and predicted traits is important to uncover the dimension of the predictive power of a microbial composition approach. Numerous works have addressed the taxonomic composition of bacteria in communities, but little is known about trait heterogeneity in closely related bacteria that co-occur in communities. We evaluated a sample of 467 isolates from the Churince water system of the Cuatro Cienegas Basin (CCB), enriched forBacillusspp. The 16S rRNA gene revealed a random distribution of taxonomic groups within this genus among 11 sampling sites. A subsample of 141Bacillusspp. isolates from sediment, with seven well-represented species was chosen to evaluate the heterogeneity and the phylogenetic signal of phenotypic traits that are known to diverge within small clades, such as substrate utilization, and traits that are conserved deep in the lineage, such as prototrophy, swarming and biofilm formation. We were especially interested in evaluating social traits, such as swarming and biofilm formation, for which cooperation is needed to accomplish a multicellular behavior and for which there is little information from natural communities. The phylogenetic distribution of traits, evaluated by the Purvis and Fritz's D statistics approached a Brownian model of evolution. Analysis of the phylogenetic relatedness of the clusters of members sharing the trait using consenTRAIT algorithm, revealed more clustering and deeper phylogenetic signal for prototrophy, biofilm and swimming compared to the data obtained for substrate utilization. The explanation to the observed Brownian evolution of social traits could be either loss due to complete dispensability or to compensated trait loss due to the availability of public goods. Since many of the evaluated traits can be considered to be collective action traits, such as swarming, motility and biofilm formation, the observed microdiversity within taxonomic groups might be explained by distributed functions in structured communities.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Biología Molecular y Ecología Microbiana, Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Unidad Irapuato, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional Irapuato, México.
authors.forename: María Dolores
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Torres
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Biología Molecular y Ecología Microbiana, Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Unidad Irapuato, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional Irapuato, México.
authors.forename: África
authors.initials: Á
authors.lastname: Islas-Robles
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Biología Molecular y Ecología Microbiana, Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Unidad Irapuato, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional Irapuato, México.
authors.forename: Zulema
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gómez-Lunar
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Biología Molecular y Ecología Microbiana, Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Unidad Irapuato, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional Irapuato, México.
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Delaye
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Biología Molecular y Ecología Microbiana, Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Unidad Irapuato, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional Irapuato, México.
authors.forename: Ismael
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hernández-González
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Evolución Molecular y Experimental, Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Mexico City, México.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul MN, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Travisano
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Biología Molecular y Ecología Microbiana, Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Unidad Irapuato, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional Irapuato, México.
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Olmedo-Álvarez
keywords: Bacillus spp.; collective action; microbial communities; phenotypic trait loss; phylogenetic signal