The existence of biogeography for microorganisms is a raising topic in ecology and researchers are employing better distinctions
between single species, including the most rare ones, to reveal potential hidden patterns. An important volume
of evidence supporting heterogeneous distributions for bacteria, archaea and protists is accumulating, and more recently
a few efforts have targeted microscopic fungi. We propose an insight into this latter kingdom by looking at a group of soil
nematode-trapping fungi whose species are well-known and easily recognizable. We chose a pure culture approach because
of its reliable isolation procedures for this specific group. After morphologically and molecularly identifying all species
collected from 2250 samples distributed in 228 locations across Yunnan province of China, we analyzed occurrence frequencies
and mapped species, genera, and richness. Results showed an apparent cosmopolitan tendency for this group of
fungi, including species richness among sites. However, only four species were widespread across the region, while nonrandom
heterogeneous distributions were observed for the remaining 40 species, both in terms of statistical distribution of
species richness reflected by a significant variance-to-mean ratio, as well as in terms of visually discernible spatial clusters
of rare species and genera on the map. Moreover, several species were restricted to only one location, raising the question
of whether endemicity exists for this microbial group. Finally, environmental heterogeneity showed a marginal contribution
in explaining restricted distributions, suggesting that other factors such as geographical isolation and dispersal capabilities
should be explored. These findings contribute to our understanding of the cryptic geographic distribution of microorganisms
and encourage further research in this direction.
During a study of the marine actinobacterial biodiversity, a
large number of Brevibacterium strains were isolated. Of these,
five that have relatively low 16S rRNA gene similarity (98.5–
99.3%) with validly published Brevibacterium species, were
chosen to determine taxonomic positions. On the basis of 16S
rRNA gene sequence analysis and BOX-PCR fingerprinting,
strains o2T, YB235T, and WO024T were selected as representative
strains. Genomic analyses, including average nucleotide
identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH),
clearly differentiated the three strains from each other and
from their closest relatives, with values ranging from 82.8%
to 91.5% for ANI and from 26.7% to 46.5% for dDDH that
below the threshold for species delineation. Strains YB235T,
WO024T, and o2T all exhibited strong and efficient decolorization
activity in congo red (CR) dyes, moderate decolorization
activity in toluidine blue (TB) dyes and poor decolorization
in reactive blue (RB) dyes. Genes coding for peroxidases
and laccases were identified and accounted for these strains’
ability to effectively oxidize a variety of dyes with different
chemical structures. Mining of the whole genome for secondary
metabolite biosynthesis gene clusters revealed the presence
of gene clusters encoding for bacteriocin, ectoine, NRPS,
siderophore, T3PKS, terpene, and thiopeptide. Based on the
phylogenetic, genotypic and phenotypic data, strains o2T,
YB235T and WO024T clearly represent three novel taxa within
the genus Brevibacterium, for which the names Brevibacterium
limosum sp. nov. (type strain o2T = JCM 33844T = MCCC
1A09961T), Brevibacterium pigmenatum sp. nov. (type strain
YB235T = JCM 33843T = MCCC 1A09842T) and Brevibacterium
atlanticum sp. nov. (type strain WO024T = JCM 33846T
= MCCC 1A16743T) are proposed.