Whether or not bacterial species exist remains an unresolved issue of paramount theoretical
as well as practical consequences. Here we review and synthesize the findings emerging …

The microbial way of life spans at least 3.8 billion years of evolution. Microbial organisms
are pervasive, ubiquitous, and essential components of all ecosystems. The geochemical …

Studies of microbial biodiversity have made astounding discoveries of late due to the use of
methodologies based on phylogenetic analyses of small subunit ribosomal RNA sequences …

Despite recognition of the importance of soil bacteria to terrestrial ecosystem functioning
there is little consensus on the factors regulating belowground biodiversity. Here we present …

The enormous diversity available at the microbial level is just beginning to be realized. The
richness of diversity amongst the bacteria that have been described so far is between 2 and …

Recent advances in the estimation of prokaryotic diversity have brought us insight into two
questions: what is the extent of prokaryotic diversity, and perhaps more importantly, why …

Our perspective on microbial diversity has improved enormously over the past few decades.
In large part this has been due to molecular phylogenetic studies that objectively relate …

The high diversity of soil bacteria is attributed to the spatial complexity of soil systems, where
habitat heterogeneity promotes niche partitioning among bacterial taxa. This premise …

Citations of the old microbiological tenet 'Everything is everywhere, but, the environment
selects' have spectacularly increased in frequency in recent years in environmental …

The microbial cosmopolitan dispersion hypothesis often invoked to explain distribution
patterns driven by high connectivity of oceanographic water masses and widespread …