Publication Date:
2010-10-12
Description:
Oceanic bacteria perform many environmental functions, including biogeochemical cycling of many elements, metabolizing of greenhouse gases, functioning in oceanic food webs (microbial loop), and producing valuable natural products and viruses. We demonstrate that the widespread capability of marine bacteria to participate in horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in coastal and oceanic environments may be the result of gene transfer agents (GTAs), viral-like particles produced by alpha-Proteobacteria. We documented GTA-mediated gene transfer frequencies a thousand to a hundred million times higher than prior estimates of HGT in the oceans, with as high as 47% of the culturable natural microbial community confirmed as gene recipients. These findings suggest a plausible mechanism by which marine bacteria acquire novel traits, thus ensuring resilience in the face of environmental change.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉McDaniel, Lauren D -- Young, Elizabeth -- Delaney, Jennifer -- Ruhnau, Fabian -- Ritchie, Kim B -- Paul, John H -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2010 Oct 1;330(6000):50. doi: 10.1126/science.1192243.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉University of South Florida College of Marine Science, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, USA. mcdaniel@marine.usf.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20929803" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Adaptation, Physiological
;
DNA Transposable Elements
;
Drug Resistance, Bacterial/genetics
;
*Ecosystem
;
Flavobacterium/drug effects/genetics
;
Flexibacter/drug effects/genetics
;
*Gene Transfer, Horizontal
;
Kanamycin Resistance/genetics
;
Oceans and Seas
;
Prophages/genetics
;
Rhodobacteraceae/drug effects/*genetics/virology
;
Seawater/*microbiology
;
Streptomycin/metabolism/pharmacology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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