Monthly Archives: April 2014

Publication:

Barton, A.D., B.A. Ward, R.G. Williams, and M.J. Follows (2014), The impact of fine-scale turbulence on phytoplankton community structure. Limnology and Oceanography: Fluids and Environments, 4, 34-49, doi: 10.1215/21573689-2651533

 

MIT scientists discovered an amazing amount of diversity among a population of marine microbes living in a few drops of water. Each subpopulation of the marine microbe Prochlorococcus is characterized by a shared genomic "backbone." The figurative backbones are depicted in this artist's rendering.

Ocean microbes display remarkable genetic diversity

The smallest, most abundant marine microbe, Prochlorococcus, is a photosynthetic bacteria species essential to the marine ecosystem. An estimated billion billion billion of the single-cell creatures live in the oceans, forming the base of the marine food chain and occupying a range of ecological niches based on temperature, light and chemical preferences, and interactions with other species. But the full extent and characteristics of diversity within this single species remains a puzzle. Continue reading Ocean microbes display remarkable genetic diversity

Publication

Kashtan, N., S.E Roggensack, S. Rodrigue, J.W. Thompson, S.J. Biller, A. Coe, H. Ding, P. Marttinen, R. Stocker, M.J. Follows, R. Stepanauskas and S.W. Chisholm (2014) Single cell genomics reveals hundreds of coexisting subpopulations in wild ProchlorococcusScience, 344(6182), 416-420, doi: 10.1126/science.1248575