The Bacterial Species Challenge: Making Sense of Genetic and Ecological Diversity Export

@article{citeulike:4016688, abstract = {The Bacteria and Archaea are the most genetically diverse superkingdoms of life, and techniques for exploring that diversity are only just becoming widespread. Taxonomists classify these organisms into species in much the same way as they classify eukaryotes, but differences in their biology--including horizontal gene transfer between distantly related taxa and variable rates of homologous recombination--mean that we still do not understand what a bacterial species is. This is not merely a semantic question; evolutionary theory should be able to explain why species exist at all levels of the tree of life, and we need to be able to define species for practical applications in industry, agriculture, and medicine. Recent studies have emphasized the need to combine genetic diversity and distinct ecology in an attempt to define species in a coherent and convincing fashion. The resulting data may help to discriminate among the many theories of prokaryotic species that have been produced to date. 10.1126/science.1159388}, author = {Fraser, Christophe and Alm, Eric J. and Polz, Martin F. and Spratt, Brian G. and Hanage, William P.}, citeulike-article-id = {4016688}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1159388}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/323/5915/741?}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19197054}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=19197054}, day = {6}, doi = {10.1126/science.1159388}, issn = {1095-9203}, journal = {Science}, keywords = {diversity, evolution, species\_concept, theory}, month = {February}, number = {5915}, pages = {741--746}, posted-at = {2009-02-28 23:01:25}, priority = {2}, title = {The Bacterial Species Challenge: Making Sense of Genetic and Ecological Diversity}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1159388}, volume = {323}, year = {2009} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:4016688 L3 - citeulike-article-id:4016688 N2 - The Bacteria and Archaea are the most genetically diverse superkingdoms of life, and techniques for exploring that diversity are only just becoming widespread. Taxonomists classify these organisms into species in much the same way as they classify eukaryotes, but differences in their biology--including horizontal gene transfer between distantly related taxa and variable rates of homologous recombination--mean that we still do not understand what a bacterial species is. This is not merely a semantic question; evolutionary theory should be able to explain why species exist at all levels of the tree of life, and we need to be able to define species for practical applications in industry, agriculture, and medicine. Recent studies have emphasized the need to combine genetic diversity and distinct ecology in an attempt to define species in a coherent and convincing fashion. The resulting data may help to discriminate among the many theories of prokaryotic species that have been produced to date. 10.1126/science.1159388 IS - 5915 JF - Science SN - 1095-9203 EP - 746 TI - The Bacterial Species Challenge: Making Sense of Genetic and Ecological Diversity VL - 323 SP - 741 KW - diversity KW - evolution KW - species_concept KW - theory AU - Fraser, Christophe AU - Alm, Eric AU - Polz, Martin AU - Spratt, Brian AU - Hanage, William PY - 2009/02/06/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1159388 ER -