“Every Gene Is Everywhere but the Environment Selects”: Global Geolocalization of Gene Sharing in Environmental Samples through Network Analysis
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Alm_Every gene.pdf
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1.2 MB
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Author(s)
Fondi, Marco
Karkman, Antti
Tamminen, Manu V.
Bosi, Emanuele
Virta, Marko
Fani, Renato
McInerney, James O.
Alm, Eric J
Date Issued
April 2016
Journal
Genome Biology and Evolution
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Citation
Fondi, Marco et al. “‘Every Gene Is Everywhere but the Environment Selects’: Global Geolocalization of Gene Sharing in Environmental Samples through Network Analysis.” Genome Biology and Evolution 8.5 (2016): 1388–1400.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The spatial distribution of microbes on our planet is famously formulated in the Baas Becking hypothesis as “everything is everywhere but the environment selects.” While this hypothesis does not strictly rule out patterns caused by geographical effects on ecology and historical founder effects, it does propose that the remarkable dispersal potential of microbes leads to distributions generally shaped by environmental factors rather than geographical distance. By constructing sequence similarity networks from uncultured environmental samples, we show that microbial gene pool distributions are not influenced nearly as much by geography as ecology, thus extending the Bass Becking hypothesis from whole organisms to microbial genes. We find that gene pools are shaped by their broad ecological niche (such as sea water, fresh water, host, and airborne). We find that freshwater habitats act as a gene exchange bridge between otherwise disconnected habitats. Finally, certain antibiotic resistance genes deviate from the general trend of habitat specificity by exhibiting a high degree of cross-habitat mobility. The strong cross-habitat mobility of antibiotic resistance genes is a cause for concern and provides a paradigmatic example of the rate by which genes colonize new habitats when new selective forces emerge.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evw077
