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GENETIC STRUCTURE AND DIVERSITY WITHIN LOCAL POPULATIONS OF BACILLUS MYCOIDES
Author(s) -
Bell Julia A.,
Friedman Stephen B.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1994.tb02206.x
Subject(s) - biology , genetics , cistron , restriction fragment length polymorphism , bacterial taxonomy , genetic diversity , ribosomal rna , genetic distance , restriction enzyme , genetic variation , genotype , dna , 16s ribosomal rna , bacteria , gene , escherichia coli , population , demography , sociology
Sixty strains of Bacillus mycoides were isolated from each of two sites and characterized by their responses to standard metabolic tests used in bacterial taxonomy, by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE), and by restriction‐fragment‐length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of Southern blots probed with both a conserved DNA fragment derived from a Salmonella typhimurium ribosomal cistron and with two cosmid probes derived from B. mycoides ATCC strain 6463. Both MLEE and RFLP analyses indicated that the collection contained two genetically distinct sets of strains (I and II); one of these sets was further differentiated genetically by the same analyses (IIA and IIB). Standard taxonomic analysis did not distinguish these sets of strains; biochemical test profiles were similar for all isolates. The genetic distance between groups I and II is as great as that observed for recognized species of bacteria. It is proposed that these groups are sibling species having a common evolutionary descent and that their metabolic phenotype has been conserved, whereas their DNA and protein sequences have diverged. No strong evidence of geographic differentiation between strains from the two sites appeared in either genetic or phenetic characters.