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Sikorski J, Baumgartner V, Birkhofer K, Boeddinghaus RS, Bunk B, Fischer M, Fösel BU, Friedrich MW, Göker M, Hölzel N, Huang S, Huber KJ, Kandeler E, Klaus VH, Kleinebecker T, Marhan S, von Mering C, Oelmann Y, Prati D, Regan KM, Richter-Heitmann T, Rodrigues JFM, Schmitt B, Schöning I, Schrumpf M, Schurig E, Solly EF, Wolters V, Overmann J. The Evolution of Ecological Diversity in Acidobacteria. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:715637. [PMID: 35185839 PMCID: PMC8847707 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.715637] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2021] [Accepted: 01/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Acidobacteria occur in a large variety of ecosystems worldwide and are particularly abundant and highly diverse in soils. In spite of their diversity, only few species have been characterized to date which makes Acidobacteria one of the most poorly understood phyla among the domain Bacteria. We used a culture-independent niche modeling approach to elucidate ecological adaptations and their evolution for 4,154 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of Acidobacteria across 150 different, comprehensively characterized grassland soils in Germany. Using the relative abundances of their 16S rRNA gene transcripts, the responses of active OTUs along gradients of 41 environmental variables were modeled using hierarchical logistic regression (HOF), which allowed to determine values for optimum activity for each variable (niche optima). By linking 16S rRNA transcripts to the phylogeny of full 16S rRNA gene sequences, we could trace the evolution of the different ecological adaptations during the diversification of Acidobacteria. This approach revealed a pronounced ecological diversification even among acidobacterial sister clades. Although the evolution of habitat adaptation was mainly cladogenic, it was disrupted by recurrent events of convergent evolution that resulted in frequent habitat switching within individual clades. Our findings indicate that the high diversity of soil acidobacterial communities is largely sustained by differential habitat adaptation even at the level of closely related species. A comparison of niche optima of individual OTUs with the phenotypic properties of their cultivated representatives showed that our niche modeling approach (1) correctly predicts those physiological properties that have been determined for cultivated species of Acidobacteria but (2) also provides ample information on ecological adaptations that cannot be inferred from standard taxonomic descriptions of bacterial isolates. These novel information on specific adaptations of not-yet-cultivated Acidobacteria can therefore guide future cultivation trials and likely will increase their cultivation success.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johannes Sikorski
- Department of Microbial Ecology and Diversity Research, Leibniz-Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Vanessa Baumgartner
- Department of Microbial Ecology and Diversity Research, Leibniz-Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Klaus Birkhofer
- Department of Ecology, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, Cottbus, Germany
| | - Runa S. Boeddinghaus
- Soil Biology Department, Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Boyke Bunk
- Bioinformatics Group, Leibniz-Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Markus Fischer
- Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Bärbel U. Fösel
- Department of Microbial Ecology and Diversity Research, Leibniz-Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Michael W. Friedrich
- Microbial Ecophysiology Group, Faculty of Biology/Chemistry, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
| | - Markus Göker
- Bioinformatics Group, Leibniz-Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Norbert Hölzel
- Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group, Institute of Landscape Ecology, University Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Sixing Huang
- Bioinformatics Group, Leibniz-Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Katharina J. Huber
- Department of Microbial Ecology and Diversity Research, Leibniz-Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Ellen Kandeler
- Soil Biology Department, Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
| | | | - Till Kleinebecker
- Institute of Landscape Ecology and Resources Management, University of GieBen, GieBen, Germany
| | - Sven Marhan
- Soil Biology Department, Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Christian von Mering
- Institute of Molecular Life Sciences and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | | | - Daniel Prati
- Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Kathleen M. Regan
- Soil Biology Department, Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Tim Richter-Heitmann
- Microbial Ecophysiology Group, Faculty of Biology/Chemistry, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
| | - João F. Matias Rodrigues
- Institute of Molecular Life Sciences and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Barbara Schmitt
- Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Ingo Schöning
- Department for Biogeochemical Processes and Biogeochemical Integration, Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
| | - Marion Schrumpf
- Department for Biogeochemical Processes and Biogeochemical Integration, Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
| | | | - Emily F. Solly
- Department for Biogeochemical Processes and Biogeochemical Integration, Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
| | | | - Jörg Overmann
- Department of Microbial Ecology and Diversity Research, Leibniz-Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany
- Microbiology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
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