Konstantinos T. Konstantinidis, Alban.
Ramette, James M.
Tiedje, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, Biological Sciences
This is a research article published in The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (2006). The authors use a comparative genomics approach to evaluate the current bacterial species definition and make recommendations about how to seek an improved species concept for bacteria.
Specifically, the analyses presented assess the amount of genetic variation included in current species, the effects of ecology on genomic differences ('ecotype' concept), the role of gene acquisition/loss and the nature of the universal core genome, and whether bacterial genomes exhibit a continuum or discrete clusters of genomic similarity/difference. This paper covers both theoretical and empirical aspects of the bacterial species definition debate. It would make good reading/discussion material for advanced undergraduate or graduate students.
Subject: Biology:Microbiology:Methods of Microbiology , Methods of Microbiology :Molecular Methods, Biology:Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Evolution:Patterns, Biology:Diversity, Evolution, Evolution:Principles, Biology Resource Type: Scientific Resources:Research Results, Scientific Resources Grade Level: Graduate/ProfessionalKeywords: bacterial species, species concept, species definition, comparative genomics, genome sequencing
