Biogeographic patterns in ocean microbes emerge in a neutral agent-based model.
File(s)
Supporting information
Accepted version
Author(s)
Hellweger, FL
van Sebille, E
Fredrick, ND
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
A key question in ecology and evolution is the relative role of natural selection and neutral evolution in producing biogeographic patterns. We quantify the role of neutral processes by simulating division, mutation, and death of 100,000 individual marine bacteria cells with full 1 million-base-pair genomes in a global surface ocean circulation model. The model is run for up to 100,000 years and output is analyzed using BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) alignment and metagenomics fragment recruitment. Simulations show the production and maintenance of biogeographic patterns, characterized by distinct provinces subject to mixing and periodic takeovers by neighbors (coalescence), after which neutral evolution reestablishes the province and the patterns reorganize. The emergent patterns are substantial (e.g., down to 99.5% DNA identity between North and Central Pacific provinces) and suggest that microbes evolve faster than ocean currents can disperse them. This approach can also be used to explore environmental selection.
Date Issued
2014-09-12
ISSN
0036-8075
Start Page
1346
End Page
1349
Journal / Book Title
Science
Volume
345
Issue
6202
Copyright Statement
© 2014 Ferdi L. Hellweger et al. Biogeographic patterns in ocean microbes emerge in a neutral agent-based model
Ferdi L. Hellweger, Erik van Sebille, and Neil D. Fredrick
Science 12 September 2014: 345 (6202), 1346-1349. [DOI:10.1126/science.1254421]
Ferdi L. Hellweger, Erik van Sebille, and Neil D. Fredrick
Science 12 September 2014: 345 (6202), 1346-1349. [DOI:10.1126/science.1254421]
Identifier
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25214628
345/6202/1346
Coverage Spatial
United States