Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Compost Microcosms as Microbially Diverse, Natural-like Environments for Microbiome Research in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: September 13, 2022
Microbial diversity. Fine-scale diversity and extensive recombination in a quasisexual bacterial population occupying
Michael J Rosen1, Michelle Davison2, Devaki Bhaya3
1Applied Physics Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Abstract:
Extensive fine-scale genetic diversity is found in many microbial species across varied environments, but for most, the evolutionary scenarios that generate the observed variation remain unclear. Deep sequencing of a thermophilic cyanobacterial population and analysis of the statistics of synonymous single-nucleotide polymorphisms revealed a high rate of homologous recombination and departures from neutral drift consistent with the effects of genetic hitchhiking. A sequenced isolate genome resembled an unlinked random mixture of the allelic diversity at the sampled loci. These observations suggested a quasisexual microbial population that occupies a broad ecological niche, with selection driving frequencies of alleles rather than whole genomes.
Related Concept Videos
Diversity of Archaea II
Diversity of Protists II
Diversity of Protists I
Diversity of Archaea I
Cell Diversity
Multicellular...
Diversity of Antigen Receptors
Before encountering any antigen, lymphocytes express these receptors. On B cells, the antigen receptor is a membrane-bound antibody molecule called BCR; on T cells, it is a T cell receptor or TCR. B and T cell receptors are composed of two...

