ArticlePLoS biology2012
Patterns of gene flow define species of thermophilic Archaea.
Article in PLoS biology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 115 papers.
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Who cites it
115 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Population Ecology of Glacier Bacteria from the View of Gene Flow inMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- CRISPR-Cas targeting inmicroLife · 2026Article
- Comparative genomics uncovers adaptive and biotechnological potential of Enterobacter xiangfangensis MDMC82 isolated from desert, and highlights putative core Enterobacteriaceae functions.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Introgression impacts the evolution of bacteria, but species borders are rarely fuzzy.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Rapid Radiations Outweigh Reticulations During the Evolution of a 750-Million-Year-Old Lineage of Cyanobacteria.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Global dominance of Haloquadratum walsbyi by a single genomovar with distinct gene content and viral cohorts from close relatives.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- High-quality genome of a novel Thermosynechococcaceae species from Namibia and characterization of its protein expression patterns at elevated temperatures.MicrobiologyOpen · 2024Article
- Adhesion pilus retraction powers twitching motility in the thermoacidophilic crenarchaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Decoding populations in the ocean microbiome.Microbiome · 2024Article
- The global speciation continuum of the cyanobacterium Microcoleus.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Genomic basis of environmental adaptation in the widespread poly-extremophilic Exiguobacterium group.The ISME journal · 2024Article
- A genus in the bacterial phylum Aquificota appears to be endemic to Aotearoa-New Zealand.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Article
- An active microbiome in Old Faithful geyser.PNAS nexus · 2023Article
- Integrated conjugative plasmid drives high frequency chromosomal gene transfer inFrontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Gene flow and introgression are pervasive forces shaping the evolution of bacterial species.Genome biology · 2022Article
55 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Despite a growing appreciation of their vast diversity in nature, mechanisms of speciation are poorly understood in Bacteria and Archaea. Here we use high-throughput genome sequencing to identify ongoing speciation in the thermoacidophilic Archaeon Sulfolobus islandicus. Patterns of homologous gene flow among genomes of 12 strains from a single hot spring in Kamchatka, Russia, demonstrate higher levels of gene flow within than between two persistent, coexisting groups, demonstrating that these microorganisms fit the biological species concept. Furthermore, rates of gene flow between two species are decreasing over time in a manner consistent with incipient speciation. Unlike other microorganisms investigated, we do not observe a relationship between genetic divergence and frequency of recombination along a chromosome, or other physical mechanisms that would reduce gene flow between lineages. Each species has its own genetic island encoding unique physiological functions and a unique growth phenotype that may be indicative of ecological specialization. Genetic differentiation between these coexisting groups occurs in large genomic "continents," indicating the topology of genomic divergence during speciation is not uniform and is not associated with a single locus under strong diversifying selection. These data support a model where species do not require physical barriers to gene flow but are maintained by ecological differentiation.
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