Book review

Molecular Phylogeny of Microorganisms

Molecular phylogeny, the analysis of gene or protein sequences to unravel the relatedness among microorganisms, plays an important role in microbial taxonomy. One of the most exciting developments in this respect was the discovery of the two domains, Bacteria and Archaea, by Carl Woese in the 1970th. The present book, Molecular Phylogeny of Microorganisms, edited by Aharon Ohren and R. Thane Papke, describes very nicely the different approaches to apply molecular phylogeny, encountering the difficulties with the present phylogenomic species concept.

Chapter one gives a historical overview of the scientific view of phylogeny, from Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in the 17th century, to Charles Darwin and Ferdinand Cohn in the 19th century, and to the so-called Dark Age of deep pessimism in the 20th century. Interestingly, Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology has fully accepted the arrangement of all prokaryotes based on their small subunit ribosomal (r) RNA sequence.

Chapter two and Chapter three focus on the practical aspect of molecular phylogeny. Whereas in Chapter 2 the general procedure to analyze molecular sequences is explained, in Chapter three the emphasis in on multilocus sequence analysis. In both chapters valuable hints to computer tools including the relevant web sites are given.

Chapter four is dedicated to the small subunit rRNA and stresses herewith its importance as molecular marker for phylogenetic analysis. Unfortunately, the significance of the Ribosomal Database Project, led by scientists from the Center for Microbial Ecology, Michigan State University, in this respect has not become clear.

Chapter five covers the cultured and uncultured phyla of prokaryotes, describing the difficulties in species delineation, and describing the main phyla within the Archaea and Bacteria domains. To define the most recent common ancestor, many different models to root the Tree of Life have been proposed. Chapter six provides information about the different rooting methods. The immense increase in biological information over the last decades has not brought the solution to root the Tree of Life, but raises more questions than answers.

The importance of indels (sequence regions which have undergone insertions or deletions), also mentioned in Chapter six, is reflected by the fact that a whole chapter is dedicated to that subject (Chapter seven).

Gene transfer and its importance to evolution are discussed in Chapters eight and nine. In Chapter eight, the influence of lateral gene transfer on microbial phylogeny is discussed; in Chapter nine the importance of horizontal gene transfer is explained.

The only chapter with relation to eukaryotes is Chapter ten, Endosymbiosis and the Evolution of Plastids. It summarizes current information on the evolution of plastids and its effect on the evolution of eukaryotes.

Reviewing the authors, who contributed to the present book, the author of this review realized that some of the leading scientists in this field of microbiology were not represented. One of them, Norman Pace, a student of Carl Woese, contributed immensely to the application of molecular phylogeny to explore the microbial diversity in natural environments.

This book is not very extensive; however, it addresses the most interesting issues in relation to molecular phylogeny. One important fact becomes very clear after reading this book: there is still no valid taxonomic system to describe microorganisms satisfactorily, though scientists have found a way to deal with it. Anyone, who is interested in microbial phylogeny, surely will enjoy reading this book. The hardcover, format and contents of the book make it a pleasure to read.

Review by: Mareike Viebahn, PhD, Centocor BV, Einsteinweg 92, 2333 CD Leiden, The Netherlands

Full details of the book available at Molecular Phylogeny of Microorganisms

Molecular Phylogeny of Microorganisms Edited by: Aharon Oren and R. Thane Papke ISBN: 978-1-904455-67-7 Publisher: Caister Academic Press Publication Date: July 2010 Cover: Hardback

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