Content of review 1, reviewed on November 11, 2016

  • Knowledge gap: Advances in genome sequencing over the last decade offer a new perspective on accessing genome from micro-organisms not available through growth media.

  • Strategy: By merging over 30,000 available genomes + 1,000 new uncultivated organisms, they propose an updated view ofthe tree of life. Those new organisms come from various environments, like salt crust in the Atacama Desert, grassland meadow soil in northern California, geyser system or dolphin mouths.

  • Main findings: see Figure 1. A vast majority of lineages are uncultivated.

  • Strengths:

  • They rely on 16 ribosomal proteins sequences instead of the widely used 16s rRNA gene, leading to higher resolution.
  • Identification of the 'Candidate Phyla Radiation', as a group with small genomes, mostly symbionts with restricted metabolic capacities, potentially an early metabolic platform for life.

Source

    © 2016 the Reviewer (CC BY 4.0).

References

    A., H. L., J., B. B., Karthik, A., T., B. C., J., P. A., J., C. C., N., B. C., W., H. A., Yuki, A., Kotaro, I., Yohey, S., Natasha, D., A., R. D., M., F. K., Ronald, A., C., T. B., F., B. J. 2016. A new view of the tree of life. Nature Microbiology.