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Appl Environ Microbiol, May 1998, p. 1620-1627, Vol. 64, No. 5
University of Toronto at Scarborough,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M1C 1A41;
Department of Biology, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado
Springs, Colorado 808402; and
Center for
Microbial Ecology and Department of Crop and Soil Sciences,
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
48824-13253
Received 17 July 1997/Accepted 20 January 1998
Soils samples were obtained from pristine ecosystems in six regions
on five continents. Two of the regions were boreal forests, and the
other four were Mediterranean ecosystems. Twenty-four soil samples from
each of four or five sites in each of the regions were enriched by
using 3-chlorobenzoate (3CBA), and 3CBA mineralizers were isolated from
most samples. These isolates were analyzed for the ability to
mineralize 3CBA, and genotypes were determined with repetitive
extragenic palindromic PCR genomic fingerprints and restriction digests
of the 16S rRNA genes (amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis
[ARDRA]). We found that our collection of 150 stable
3CBA-mineralizing isolates included 48 genotypes and 44 ARDRA types,
which formed seven distinct clusters. The majority (91%) of the
genotypes were unique to the sites from which they were isolated, and
each genotype was found only in the region from which it was isolated.
A total of 43 of the 44 ARDRA types were found in only one region. A
few genotypes were repeatedly found in one region but not in any other
continental region, suggesting that they are regionally endemic. A
correlation between bacterial genotype and vegetative community was
found for the South African samples. These results suggest that the ability to mineralize 3CBA is distributed among very diverse genotypes and that the genotypes are not globally dispersed.
0099-2240/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
High Levels of Endemicity of
3-Chlorobenzoate-Degrading Soil Bacteria
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Physical
Sciences Division, University of Toronto at Scarborough, 1265 Military
Trail, Scarborough, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada. Phone: (416) 287-7221. Fax: (416) 287-7204. E-mail: fulthorpe{at}scar.utoronto.ca.
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