Temperature and Nutrient Levels Correspond with Lineage-Specific Microdiversification in the Ubiquitous and Abundant Freshwater Genus <i>Limnohabitans</i>
Ruben Props, Vincent J. Denef
Abstract
Limnohabitans is an important bacterial taxonomic group for cycling carbon in freshwater ecosystems worldwide. Here, we examined the genomic diversity of different Limnohabitans lineages. We focused on the LimB lineage of this genus, which is globally distributed and often abundant, and its abundance has shown to be largely invariant to environmental change. Our data show that the LimB lineage is actually comprised of multiple cooccurring populations for which the composition and genomic characteristics are associated with variations in temperature and nutrient levels. The gene expression profiles of this lineage suggest the importance of chemotaxis and motility, traits that had not yet been associated with the Limnohabitans genus, in adapting to environmental conditions.