species
- Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceConsistent Metagenome-Derived Metrics Verify and Delineate Bacterial Species Boundaries
There 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...