Metagenomic Analysis Reveals Unexpected Subgenomic Diversity of Magnetotactic Bacteria within the PhylumNitrospirae
ABSTRACTA targeted metagenomic approach was applied to investigate magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) within the phylumNitrospiraein Lake Miyun near Beijing, China. Five fosmids containing rRNA operons were identified. Comparative sequence analysis of a total of 172 kb provided new insights into their genome organization and revealed unexpected subgenomic diversity of uncultivated MTB in the phylumNitrospirae. In addition, affiliation of two novel MTB with the phylumNitrospiraewas verified by fluorescencein situhybridization. One of them was morphologically similar to “CandidatusMagnetobacterium bavaricum,” but the other differed substantially in cell shape and magnetosome organization from all previously described “Ca.Magnetobacterium bavaricum”-like bacteria.