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Do the bacteria disappear? The world is filled with very diverse populations of microbes, and that is because of the large number of bacterial populations that it was commonly accepted that bacteria rarely disappear or die.
However, a new study shows that this is not the case and that bacteria, like a wide range of other species, have disappeared. However, it was difficult to track these declines in populations because the bacteria avoided large mass extinctions at the planet scale easily highlighted in the fossil record.
"Bacteria rarely fossilize, so we know very little about how the microbial landscape has evolved over time," said Stilianos Louca, the head of the study. "Sequencing and mathematics have helped us fill the genealogical tree of bacteria, map their diversification over time, and discover their extinctions."
Researchers of University of British Columbia Caltech [19659002] and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory used DNA sequencing and data analysis to create the first evolutionary tree of bacteria during the last billion years.
"This study would not have been possible 10 years ago," said Michael Doebeli, the main author on the paper. "The availability of massive sequencing data and powerful computing resources allowed us to perform complex mathematical analysis."
Although researchers were able to track the evolution of 1.4 At 1.9 million bacterial lineages over the years, the family tree only represents a small fraction of all bacteria.
"Although modern bacterial diversity is undoubtedly high, it is only a tiny cliche of the diversity that evolution has generated during the history of the Earth, "said Louca.
The results, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution show that bacteria have experienced thousands of extinctions over the years, between 45,000 and 95,000 extinctions in the last million only years old.
Bacteria were able to avoid major mass extinction events and researchers found that they were also able to diversify exponentially without interruption, even with thousands of extinctions at within their family tree.
The researchers then plan to study the evolution of bacteria and their physiological properties over the years to see what benefits bacteria have gained in order to thrive and maintain such high numbers and diversity.
–
Kay Vandette Earth.com Staff Writer
Photo Credit: Stilianos Louca, University of British Columbia
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