Computational Improvements Reveal Great Bacterial Diversity and High Metal Toxicity in Soil

The complexity of soil bacterial communities has thus far confounded effective measurement. However, with improved analytical methods, we show that the abundance distribution and total diversity can be deciphered. Reanalysis of reassociation kinetics for bacterial community DNA from pristine and met...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2005-08, Vol.309 (5739), p.1387-1390
Main Authors: Gans, Jason, Wolinsky, Murray, Dunbar, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacteria
Bacteria - genetics
Bacteria - growth & development
Bacteriology
Biodiversity
Biological and medical sciences
Biomass
Colony Count, Microbial
community ecology
Community Relations
Company distribution practices
computer analysis
Computer Simulation
Datasets
Distribution
DNA
DNA reassociation kinetics
DNA, Bacterial - analysis
DNA, Bacterial - genetics
Ecosystem
Environmental aspects
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetic diversity
genetic techniques and protocols
Genetic Variation
Genetics
Genome, Bacterial
heavy metals
Kinetics
Mathematics
mathematics and statistics
Metallic elements
Metals
Metals, Heavy - analysis
Metals, Heavy - toxicity
Microbiology
Miscellaneous
Models, Biological
Nucleic Acid Renaturation
polluted soils
Pollution
Soil - analysis
Soil bacteria
Soil contamination
soil ecology
Soil Microbiology
Soil Pollutants - analysis
Soil Pollutants - toxicity
Soil pollution
Soil samples
Soil toxicity
Species
Species diversity
Toxicity
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Description
Summary:The complexity of soil bacterial communities has thus far confounded effective measurement. However, with improved analytical methods, we show that the abundance distribution and total diversity can be deciphered. Reanalysis of reassociation kinetics for bacterial community DNA from pristine and metal-polluted soils showed that a power law best described the abundance distributions. More than one million distinct genomes occurred in the pristine soil, exceeding previous estimates by two orders of magnitude. Metal pollution reduced diversity more than 99.9%, revealing the highly toxic effect of metal contamination, especially for rare taxa.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1112665