Evidence for Ecological Flexibility in the Cosmopolitan Genus Curtobacterium

• Main Authors: Chase, Alexander B. (Author), Berlemont, Renaud (Author), Martiny, Jennifer B. H. (Author), Arevalo, Philip Alexander (Contributor), Polz, Martin F (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Contributor), Parsons Laboratory for Environmental Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Research Foundation, 2017-02-21T15:29:01Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

Assigning ecological roles to bacterial taxa remains imperative to understanding how microbial communities will respond to changing environmental conditions. Here we analyze the genus Curtobacterium, as it was found to be the most abundant taxon in a leaf litter community in southern California. Traditional characterization of this taxon predominantly associates it as the causal pathogen in the agricultural crops of dry beans. Therefore, we sought to investigate whether the abundance of this genus was because of its role as a plant pathogen or another ecological role. By collating >24,000 16S rRNA sequences with 120 genomes across the Microbacteriaceae family, we show that Curtobacterium has a global distribution with a predominant presence in soil ecosystems. Moreover, this genus harbors a high diversity of genomic potential for the degradation of carbohydrates, specifically with regards to structural polysaccharides. We conclude that Curtobacterium may be responsible for the degradation of organic matter within litter communities.
United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Biological and Environmental Research (Award DE-PS02-09ER09-25)
United States. Dept. of Energy (Grant DESC0008743)