Lifestyle Evolution Of Wild Marine Bacteria: Free-floating Cells Share With Attached Relatives
Monday, May 26, 2008 - 21:35
in Biology & Nature
Marine bacteria in the wild organize into lifestyle groups that partition resources rather than competing for them, so that microbes with one lifestyle, such as free-floating cells, flourish in proximity with related microbes that may spend life attached to zooplankton or algae. This information and the methodology behind it could change the way scientists approach the classification of microbes by making it possible to determine on a large scale the genetic basis for ecological niches.