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Electing a candidate: a speculative history of the bacterial phylum OP10
Author(s) -
Dunfield Peter F.,
Tamas Ivica,
Lee Kevin C.,
Morgan Xochitl C.,
McDonald Ian R.,
Stott Matthew B.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.954
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1462-2920
pISSN - 1462-2912
DOI - 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2012.02742.x
Subject(s) - biology , phylum , computational biology , evolutionary biology , genetics , bacteria
Summary In 1998, a cultivation‐independent survey of the microbial community in Obsidian Pool, Yellowstone National Park, detected 12 new phyla within the Domain Bacteria . These were dubbed ‘candidate divisions’ OP1 to OP12. Since that time the OP10 candidate division has been commonly detected in various environments, usually as part of the rare biosphere, but occasionally as a predominant community component. Based on 16S rRNA gene phylogeny, OP10 comprises at least 12 class‐level subdivisions. However, despite this broad ecological and evolutionary diversity, all OP10 bacteria have eluded cultivation until recently. In 2011, two reference species of OP10 were taxonomically validated, removing the phylum from its ‘candidate’ status. Construction of a highly resolved phylogeny based on 29 universally conserved genes verifies its standing as a unique bacterial phylum. In the following paper we summarize what is known and what is suspected about the newest described bacterial phylum, the Armatimonadetes .