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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2001, p. 4975-4983, Vol. 67, No. 11
Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps
Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego,
La Jolla, California 92093
Received 16 April 2001/Accepted 31 July 2001
Recent studies suggest that bacterial abundance and species
diversity in the ocean's water column are variable at the millimeter scale, apparently in response to the small-scale heterogeneity in the
distribution of organic matter. We hypothesized that
bacterium-bacterium antagonistic interactions may contribute to
variations in community structure at the microscale. We examined each
of the 86 isolates for their inhibition of growth of the remaining 85 isolates by the Burkholder agar diffusion assay. More than one-half of
the isolates expressed antagonistic activity, and this trait was more common with particle-associated bacteria than with free-living bacteria. This was exemplified by members of the
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.11.4975-4983.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Antagonistic Interactions among Marine
Pelagic Bacteria
subclass of the
class Proteobacteria (
-proteobacteria), in which
production of antagonistic molecules was dominated by attached
bacteria. We found that
-proteobacteria (members of the orders
Alteromonadales and Vibrionales) are the most
prolific producers of inhibitory materials and also the most resilient
to them, while members of the Bacteriodetes were the
organisms that were least productive and most sensitive to antagonistic
interactions. Widespread interspecies growth inhibition is consistent
with the role of this phenomenon in structuring bacterial communities
at the microscale. Furthermore, our results suggest that bacteria from
pelagic marine particles may be an underutilized source of novel antibiotics.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Marine Biology
Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093. Phone: (858) 534-3196. Fax:
(858) 534-7313. E-mail: ralong{at}ucsd.edu.
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