"In other words, the low-abundance organisms might not be very active but represent a reserve of genetic and genomic innovation," says Dr. Sogin.
"Imagine a world of car manufacturers comprised of giants like Toyota, Ford and Mercedes but with 20,000 other firms making a few vehicles each," says Jesse Ausubel of New York City, the Census of Marine Life Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. "That is how it seems the mysterious microbial world operates. A swimmer taking just a swallow of seawater may be consuming an entire zoo of 1,000 different forms of bacteria!"
Says co-author Julie Huber of the MBL: "We cannot know the implications of a major, long-term environmental shift if we do not know what species were there to start with. What is rare in one environment may prevail in another. And if major environmental changes do occur, these low-abundance microbes may become dominant."
Dr. Huber says "454 tag sequencing" provides a fast, relatively low-cost method for fingerprinting marine microbial diversity.
"The depth of sampling conducted is orders of magnitude greater than previously available and reveals the enormous range of genetic diversity of different microbes in the ocean," she says.
Says co-author Gerhard Herndl of the Netherlands: "Once we catalog the diversity of microbial life in the sea, we can look for patterns and trends in the distribution of organisms. Then we will be able to address how quickly the microbial community can adapt to environmental shifts and what drives evolutionary change."
The MBL, as part of the ICoMM collaboration, has secured $1.5 million in funding from the W.M. Keck Foundation to analyze our next samples at 1,200 marine sites," says ICOMM co-chair Jan de Leeuw of the Netherlands. "We will sample surface and mid waters, hydrothermal vents, water near methane seeping from t
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Contact: Terry Collins
terrycollins@rogers.com
416-538-8712
Census of Marine Life
31-Jul-2006