Phylogenomics of SAR116 Clade Reveals Two Subclades with Different Evolutionary Trajectories and an Important Role in the Ocean Sulfur Cycle
Juan J. Roda‐Garcia, José M. Haro-Moreno, Lukas A. Huschet, Francisco Rodríguez‐Valera, Mario López‐Pérez
Abstract
is a ubiquitous group of heterotrophic bacteria inhabiting the surface of the ocean, but the information about their ecology and population genomic diversity is scarce due to the difficulty of getting pure culture isolates. The combination of single-cell genomics and metagenomics has become an alternative approach to study these kinds of microbes. Our results expand the understanding of the genomic diversity, distribution, and lifestyles within this clade and provide evidence of different evolutionary trajectories in the genomic makeup of the two subclades that could serve to illustrate how evolutionary pressure can drive different adaptations to the same environment. Therefore, the SAR116 clade represents an ideal model organism for the study of the evolutionary streamlining of genomes in microbes that have relatively close relatedness to each other.