Genomics of variation in nitrogen fixation activity in a population of the thermophilic cyanobacterium Mastigocladus laminosus.

ABSTRACT: Variation in phenotypic traits that contribute to fitness influences a population's evolutionary response and its impact on ecosystem function following environmental change, yet its amount and nature are rarely known. Here, we investigated variation in nitrogen (N) fixation activity and its genetic basis for a random sample of laboratory strains of the cyanobacterium Mastigocladus laminosus from a N-limited, geothermally influenced stream in Yellowstone National Park. In a linear mixed-effects model, temperature and genetic differences among strains were the most important factors explaining variation in activity. Genome-wide analyses of genetic divergence between groups of strains that varied in N fixation activity revealed that few loci were strongly associated with these phenotypic dif

SUBMITTER: Hutchins PR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5315470 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature