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Appl Environ Microbiol, April 1998, p. 1283-1289, Vol. 64, No. 4
0099-2240/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Characterization of the Dominant and Rare Members
of a Young Hawaiian Soil Bacterial Community with Small-Subunit
Ribosomal DNA Amplified from DNA Fractionated on the Basis of Its
Guanine and Cytosine Composition
Klaus
Nüsslein1 and
James M.
Tiedje1,2,*
Center for Microbial
Ecology,1 and
Department of Crop and
Soil Sciences,2 Michigan State
University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1325
Received 18 August 1997/Accepted 12 January 1998
The small-subunit ribosomal DNA (rDNA) diversity was found to be
very high in a Hawaiian soil community that might be expected to have
lower diversity than the communities in continental soils because the
Hawaiian soil is geographically isolated and only 200 years old, is
subjected to a constant climate, and harbors low plant diversity. Since
an underlying community structure could not be revealed by analyzing
the total eubacterial rDNA, we first fractionated the DNA on the basis
of guanine-plus-cytosine (G+C) content by using bis-benzimidazole and
equilibrium centrifugation and then analyzed the bacterial rDNA
amplified from a fraction with a high biomass (63% G+C fraction) and a
fraction with a low biomass (35% G+C fraction). The rDNA clone
libraries were screened by amplified rDNA restriction analysis to
determine phylotype distribution. The dominant biomass reflected by the
63% G+C fraction contained several dominant phylotypes, while the
community members that were less successful (35% G+C fraction) did not
show dominance but there was a very high diversity of phylotypes.
Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed taxa belonging to the groups
expected for the G+C contents used. The dominant phylotypes in the 63% G+C fraction were members of the Pseudomonas,
Rhizobium-Agrobacterium, and Rhodospirillum
assemblages, while all of the clones sequenced from the 35% G+C
fraction were affiliated with several Clostridium assemblages. The two-step rDNA analysis used here uncovered more diversity than can be detected by direct rDNA analysis of total community DNA. The G+C separation step is also a way to detect some of
the less dominant organisms in a community.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Center for
Microbial Ecology, Plant and Soil Sciences Building, Michigan State
University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1325. Phone: (517) 353-9021. Fax:
(517) 353-2917. E-mail: tiedjej{at}pilot.msu.edu.
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