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Microbial mariners

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 3, pages 748–749 (2005)Cite this article

This month, we have a maritime theme, highlighting three very different strategies for adaptation and specialization in diverse oceanic niches: Pelagibacter ubique is omnipresent but docile, Vibrio fischeri is exquisitely specialized to life within a particular organ of its host, and Colwellia psychrerythraea thrives in the colder regions of the seas.

The recent paper in Science1 describing the genome of P. ubique is packed with superlatives, and highlights a clear example of genome 'streamlining'. P. ubique is the first cultured member of the SAR11 clade of α-proteobacteria, which is ubiquitous in the oceans and, in terms of cell numbers, possibly the most successful free-living organism on the planet, accounting for around 25% of all microbial life. Unlike most other marine heterotrophs, P. ubique has a small genome (1.3 Mb), in fact the smallest genome of any free-living cell in nature.

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References

  1. Giovannoni, S. J. et al. Genome streamlining in a cosmopolitan oceanic bacterium. Science 309, 1242–1245 (2005).

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  2. Nyholm, S. V. & McFall-Ngai, M. J. The winnowing: establishing the squid–vibrio symbiosis. Nature Rev. Microbiol. 2, 632–642 (2004).

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  3. Heidelberg, J. F. et al. DNA sequence of both chromosomes of the cholera pathogen Vibrio cholerae. Nature 406, 477–483 (2000).

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  4. Ruby, E. G. et al. Complete genome sequence of Vibrio fischeri: a symbiotic bacterium with pathogenic congeners. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 102, 3004–3009 (2005).

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  5. Methé, B. A. et al. The psychrophilic lifestyle as revealed by the genome sequence of Colwellia psychrerythraea 34H through genomic and proteomic analyses. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 102, 10913–10918 (2005).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SA, Cambridge, UK

    Matthew Holden, Nicholas Thomson & Stephen Bentley

Authors
  1. Matthew Holden
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  2. Nicholas Thomson
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  3. Stephen Bentley
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DATABASES

Entrez

Bordetella pertussis

Colwellia psychrerythraea

Escherichia coli

Neisseria meningitidis

Pelagibacter ubique

Vibrio cholerae

Vibrio fischeri

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Holden, M., Thomson, N. & Bentley, S. Microbial mariners. Nat Rev Microbiol 3, 748–749 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1262

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