A Molecular View of Microbial Diversity and the Biosphere

Abstract

Over three decades of molecular-phylogenetic studies, researchers have compiled an increasingly robust map of evolutionary diversification showing that the main diversity of life is microbial, distributed among three primary relatedness groups or domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya. The general properties of representatives of the three domains indicate that the earliest life was based on inorganic nutrition and that photosynthesis and use of organic compounds for carbon and energy metabolism came comparatively later. The application of molecular-phylogenetic methods to study natural microbial ecosystems without the traditional requirement for cultivation has resulted in the discovery of many unexpected evolutionary lineages; members of some of these lineages are only distantly related to known organisms but are sufficiently abundant that they are likely to have impact on the chemistry of the biosphere.

Keywords

BiosphereArchaeaBiologyDiversification (marketing strategy)Phylogenetic treePhylogenetic diversityPhylogeneticsEvolutionary biologyEcologyEcosystemThree-domain systemBacteriaGeneticsGene

Affiliated Institutions

University of California, Berkeley US

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Publication Info

Year: 1997
Type: review
Volume: 276
Issue: 5313
Pages: 734-740
Citations: 2732
Access: Closed

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APA Style

                            
                                    Norman R. Pace
                                
                            (1997). 
                            A Molecular View of Microbial Diversity and the Biosphere. 
                            Science
                            , 276
                            (5313)
                            , 734-740.
                            https://doi.org/10.1126/science.276.5313.734

Identifiers

DOI: 10.1126/science.276.5313.734