Biodiversity and biogeography of phages in modern stromatolites and thrombolites

Christelle Desnues (), Beltran Rodriguez-Brito, Steve Rayhawk, Scott Kelley, Tuong Tran, Matthew Haynes, Hong Liu, Mike Furlan, Linda Wegley, Betty Chau, Yijun Ruan, Dana Hall, Florent E. Angly, Robert A. Edwards, Linlin Li, Rebecca Vega Thurber, R. Pamela Reid, Janet Siefert, Valeria Souza, David L. Valentine, Brandon K. Swan, Mya Breitbart and Forest Rohwer
Additional contact information
Christelle Desnues: Department of Biology,
Beltran Rodriguez-Brito: Department of Biology,
Steve Rayhawk: Department of Biology,
Scott Kelley: Department of Biology,
Tuong Tran: Department of Biology,
Matthew Haynes: Department of Biology,
Hong Liu: Department of Biology,
Mike Furlan: Department of Biology,
Linda Wegley: Department of Biology,
Betty Chau: Department of Biology,
Yijun Ruan: Genome Institute of Singapore
Dana Hall: Department of Biology,
Florent E. Angly: Department of Biology,
Robert A. Edwards: Department of Biology,
Linlin Li: Department of Biology,
Rebecca Vega Thurber: Department of Biology,
R. Pamela Reid: Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida 33149, USA
Janet Siefert: Rice University, Houston, Texas 77251, USA
Valeria Souza: Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México AP 70-275 Coyoacán
David L. Valentine: University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
Brandon K. Swan: University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
Mya Breitbart: College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St Petersburg, Florida 33701, USA
Forest Rohwer: Department of Biology,

Nature, 2008, vol. 452, issue 7185, 340-343

Abstract: Living fossils Stromatolites are living, layered structures formed in shallow waters by a combination of microbial biofilms — usually of blue-green algae — and granular deposits. They are rare today but for about 2 billion years, following their arrival in the fossil record 3.5 billion years ago, they are the main evidence of life on Earth. Modern stromatolites still look like their fossilized forebears. But are the modern microbes remnants of ancient ecosystems or just latecomers following a similar lifestyle? A metagenomic study of the bacteriophage communities in modern stromatolites and thrombolites (like stromatolites but with an irregular internal structure) shows that stromatolite-associated phages are very different from each other and from any other ecosystem studied so far. This finding strengthens the hypothesis that modern stromatolites are remnants of ancient ecosystems.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1038/nature06735

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