Microbial communities are predominantly composed of species and intraspecies units, but the mechanisms behind the formation and persistence of these units are unclear. Here, the authors provide experimental evidence supporting that ecological cohesiveness coupled to unbiased horizontal gene flow, mediated by homologous recombination, often underlie these diversity patterns.
- Roth E. Conrad
- Catherine E. Brink
- Konstantinos T. Konstantinidis
