microbial genetics
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyGenome-Wide Identification of Essential and Auxiliary Gene Sets for Magnetosome Biosynthesis in Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldenseMagnetospirillum gryphiswaldense is one of the few tractable model magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) for studying magnetosome biomineralization. So far, knowledge on the genetic determinants of this complex process has been mainly gathered using reverse genetics and candidate approaches. In contrast, nontargeted forward genetics studies are lacking, since application of...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceConsistent Metagenome-Derived Metrics Verify and Delineate Bacterial Species BoundariesThere is controversy about whether bacterial diversity is clustered into distinct species groups or exists as a continuum. To address this issue, we analyzed bacterial genome databases and reports from several previous large-scale environment studies and identified clear discrete groups of species-level bacterial diversity in all cases. Genetic analysis further revealed that quasi-sexual reproduction via horizontal gene transfer is...