Edwards, Robert A.; Rodriguez-Brito, Beltran; Wegley, Linda; Haynes, Matthew; Breitbart, Mya; Peterson, Dean M.; Saar, Martin O.; Alexander, Scott; Alexander, E. Calvin, Jr.; Rohwer, Forest

BMC Genomics (2006), 7, No pp. given CODEN: BGMEET; ISSN: 1471-2164 URL: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2164-7-57.pdf. English.

Contrasting biol., chem. and hydrogeol. analyses highlights the fundamental processes that shape different environments. Generating and interpreting the biol. sequence data is a costly and time-consuming process in defining an environment. Pyrosequencing, a rapid and relatively inexpensive sequencing technol., was used to generate environmental genome sequences from 2 sites in the Soudan Mine, Minnesota, USA. These sites were adjacent to each other, but differed significantly in chem. and hydrogeol. Comparisons of the microbes and the subsystems identified in the 2 samples highlighted imported differences in metabolic potential in each environment. The microbes were performing distinct biochem. on the available substrates, and subsystems such as carbon utilization, iron acquisition mechanisms, nitrogen assimilation, and respiratory pathways separated the 2 communities. Although the correlation between much of the microbial metabolism occurring and the geochem. conditions from which the samples were isolated could be explained, the reason for the presence of many pathways in these environments remains to be determined Despite being phys. close, these 2 communities were markedly different from each other. In addition, the communities were also completely different from other microbial communities sequenced to date. It is anticipated that pyrosequencing will be widely used to sequence environmental samples because of the speed, cost, and tech. advantages. Furthermore, subsystem comparisons rapidly identify the important metabs. employed by the microbes in different environments.