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Fuzzy species among recombinogenic bacteria

BACKGROUND: It is a matter of ongoing debate whether a universal species concept is possible for bacteria. Indeed, it is not clear whether closely related isolates of bacteria typically form discrete genotypic clusters that can be assigned as species. The most challenging test of whether species can...

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Autores principales: Hanage, William P, Fraser, Christophe, Spratt, Brian G
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2005
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC554772/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15752428
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-3-6
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author Hanage, William P
Fraser, Christophe
Spratt, Brian G
author_facet Hanage, William P
Fraser, Christophe
Spratt, Brian G
author_sort Hanage, William P
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: It is a matter of ongoing debate whether a universal species concept is possible for bacteria. Indeed, it is not clear whether closely related isolates of bacteria typically form discrete genotypic clusters that can be assigned as species. The most challenging test of whether species can be clearly delineated is provided by analysis of large populations of closely-related, highly recombinogenic, bacteria that colonise the same body site. We have used concatenated sequences of seven house-keeping loci from 770 strains of 11 named Neisseria species, and phylogenetic trees, to investigate whether genotypic clusters can be resolved among these recombinogenic bacteria and, if so, the extent to which they correspond to named species. RESULTS: Alleles at individual loci were widely distributed among the named species but this distorting effect of recombination was largely buffered by using concatenated sequences, which resolved clusters corresponding to the three species most numerous in the sample, N. meningitidis, N. lactamica and N. gonorrhoeae. A few isolates arose from the branch that separated N. meningitidis from N. lactamica leading us to describe these species as 'fuzzy'. CONCLUSION: A multilocus approach using large samples of closely related isolates delineates species even in the highly recombinogenic human Neisseria where individual loci are inadequate for the task. This approach should be applied by taxonomists to large samples of other groups of closely-related bacteria, and especially to those where species delineation has historically been difficult, to determine whether genotypic clusters can be delineated, and to guide the definition of species.
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spelling pubmed-5547722005-03-18 Fuzzy species among recombinogenic bacteria Hanage, William P Fraser, Christophe Spratt, Brian G BMC Biol Research Article BACKGROUND: It is a matter of ongoing debate whether a universal species concept is possible for bacteria. Indeed, it is not clear whether closely related isolates of bacteria typically form discrete genotypic clusters that can be assigned as species. The most challenging test of whether species can be clearly delineated is provided by analysis of large populations of closely-related, highly recombinogenic, bacteria that colonise the same body site. We have used concatenated sequences of seven house-keeping loci from 770 strains of 11 named Neisseria species, and phylogenetic trees, to investigate whether genotypic clusters can be resolved among these recombinogenic bacteria and, if so, the extent to which they correspond to named species. RESULTS: Alleles at individual loci were widely distributed among the named species but this distorting effect of recombination was largely buffered by using concatenated sequences, which resolved clusters corresponding to the three species most numerous in the sample, N. meningitidis, N. lactamica and N. gonorrhoeae. A few isolates arose from the branch that separated N. meningitidis from N. lactamica leading us to describe these species as 'fuzzy'. CONCLUSION: A multilocus approach using large samples of closely related isolates delineates species even in the highly recombinogenic human Neisseria where individual loci are inadequate for the task. This approach should be applied by taxonomists to large samples of other groups of closely-related bacteria, and especially to those where species delineation has historically been difficult, to determine whether genotypic clusters can be delineated, and to guide the definition of species. BioMed Central 2005-03-07 /pmc/articles/PMC554772/ /pubmed/15752428 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-3-6 Text en Copyright © 2005 Hanage et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hanage, William P
Fraser, Christophe
Spratt, Brian G
Fuzzy species among recombinogenic bacteria
title Fuzzy species among recombinogenic bacteria
title_full Fuzzy species among recombinogenic bacteria
title_fullStr Fuzzy species among recombinogenic bacteria
title_full_unstemmed Fuzzy species among recombinogenic bacteria
title_short Fuzzy species among recombinogenic bacteria
title_sort fuzzy species among recombinogenic bacteria
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC554772/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15752428
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-3-6
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