A Molecular View of Microbial Diversity and the Biosphere Journal Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Over three decades of molecular-phylogenetic studies, researchers have compiled an increasingly robust map of evolutionary diversification showing that the main diversity of life is microbial, distributed among three primary relatedness groups or domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya. The general properties of representatives of the three domains indicate that the earliest life was based on inorganic nutrition and that photosynthesis and use of organic compounds for carbon and energy metabolism came comparatively later. The application of molecular-phylogenetic methods to study natural microbial ecosystems without the traditional requirement for cultivation has resulted in the discovery of many unexpected evolutionary lineages; members of some of these lineages are only distantly related to known organisms but are sufficiently abundant that they are likely to have impact on the chemistry of the biosphere.

publication date

  • May 2, 1997

has restriction

  • closed

Date in CU Experts

  • May 10, 2014 10:10 AM

Full Author List

  • Pace NR

author count

  • 1

Other Profiles

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0036-8075

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1095-9203

Additional Document Info

start page

  • 734

end page

  • 740

volume

  • 276

issue

  • 5313