Scientists 'fix' bacterial life trees

Scientists have brought a new look to the method of classifying bacteria by using evolutionary plants based on genome sequences.

A team of University of Queensland (Australia) researchers led by Professor Philip Hugenholtz of UQ's Department of Molecular Chemistry and Biology and UQ's Center for Ecology (ACE) include ACE researchers. Dr. Maria Chuvochina, Dr. David Waite, Dr. Christian Rinke, Adam Skarshewski and Pierre-Alain Chaumeil have brought a new look to the method of classifying bacteria by using evolutionary plants based on processes. genome itself.

The research based on metagenomics technique - allows maximum exploitation, sequencing and analysis of DNA of non-cultured microorganisms in biological populations collected directly from environmental samples, from that, create a more complete picture depicting the structure of the bacterial kingdom.

The structure is called a scientific classification that helps connect the relationships between living organisms.

Professor Hugenholtz said the structure called science classification helps to connect the relationships between living organisms. He said: "Taxonomy helps to group and classify organisms by sorting them in a hierarchy of close-to-distant relationships according to ranks, such as species, genera, families. , rank, class, sector and area (the unit of classification of the highest level, more than the gender; also known as the world or gender, gender). "

'The new classification system provides an understanding of the interactions between species in the chain and the food web, we can relate to numbers and units such as seconds, minutes, hours, etc. in measuring time or concepts such as street, suburb, state and Country in geographic location ".

Professor Hugenholtz said that the scientific community generally agrees that the evolutionary relationship is the most natural way of classifying organisms, however, the classification of bacteria still expresses a number of errors due to difficulties in historical evolutionary factors.

"This is mainly because microorganisms have very few distinct physical characteristics, so the thousands of species that are classified incorrectly according to historical factors are unavoidable. off, " he stressed. 'Classification techniques are also quite complicated by the fact that we cannot develop most of the microorganisms within the laboratory. For that reason, until now, the identification and classification of them has not been fully implemented. "

Dr. Donovan Parks, the leading software developer in the project, expressed his delighted attitude about the recent advancement of genome sequencing technology and how it helps to recreate the tree of life. bacteria.

He emphasized: "The classification system developed to a remarkable level. Now, we have in hand a detailed genetic map of hundreds of thousands of species of bacteria, including those not yet cultured. in the laboratory ".

The team then used genetic diagrams to build a giant bacterial evolutionary tree based on 120 tightly preserved, safe genes across the entire bacterial region.

"Evolutionary plants are the basis for us to create a standardized model - a tool to assist us to correct all inaccurate categories and to make evolutionary processes among suitable bacterial groups" , Parks doctor shared. "For example, the genus Clostridium is considered a landfill for rod-shaped bacteria to produce spores within their cells, so we reclassify this group into 121 separate genera groups over 29 different families' .

"We have created a complete face change in bacterial classification, and are especially happy to know that the scientific community is also excited about this."

The classification method of the research team is based on the Species Genetic Database funded by the Laureate Fellowship Australian Fellowship Council.

The research article was published in Nature Biotechnology.