Bacterial Diversity Is Dominant Feature in New Tree of Life

Abstract

A new rendition of the tree of life includes 92 named bacterial phyla, 26 archaeal phyla, and all five of the eukaryotic supergroups. This tree highlights how bacteria dominate all of biology in terms of diversity. Moreover, although many of the most abundant bacteria have never been seen, they were identified using reconstructed genome sequences. “It was a surprise to see the massive scale of diversity in Domain Bacteria, including many lineages that lack isolated representatives,” says study leader Jill Banfield of the University of California, Berkeley. Details appeared 11 April 2016 in Nature Microbiology (doi:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.48).