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Microbial genomics

Cell by cell: population genetics in the wild

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 24, page 490 (2023)Cite this article

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Microorganisms have evolved over billions of years and are the most abundant and diverse group of cellular organisms on Earth. Their evolutionary and ecological significance is immense, as they have shaped the evolutionary trajectory of life and have crucial roles in biogeochemical processes across ecosystems. The breadth of environmental niches that microorganisms inhabit, requiring different metabolic traits and strategies for survival and to thrive, reflects their diversity — a diversity that in turn is encoded in their genomes.

Microbial genome sequencing has been common practice for nearly 30 years, but studying genetic variation within populations of closely related microorganisms has been limited. For laboratory-cultured isolates, great strides have been made by comparing whole genomes to identify single nucleotide variants, recombination, and horizontal gene transfer between closely related microorganisms. However, with cultivation biases and most of the microbial world yet uncultivated, researchers have turned to shotgun metagenome data to uncover genetic variation of microorganisms in their natural habitats.

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References

Original article

  • Kashtan, N. et al. Single-cell genomics reveals hundreds of coexisting subpopulations in wild Prochlorococcus. Science 344, 416–420 (2014)

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  1. DOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Tanja Woyke

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  1. Tanja Woyke
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Correspondence to Tanja Woyke.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Woyke, T. Cell by cell: population genetics in the wild. Nat Rev Genet 24, 490 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-023-00619-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-023-00619-4

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