Phylogenetic andmetagenomic analysis ofVerrucomicrobia in former agricultural grassland soil

bacterial communities; rhizosphere; metagenomics. The bacterial phylum Verrucomicrobia has a widespread distribution, and is known to be one of the most common and diverse phyla in soil habitats. However, members of this phylum have typically been recalcitrant to cultivation methods, hampering the study of this presumably important bacterial group. In this study, we examine the phylogenetic diversity of the Verrucomicrobia in a former agricultural field and gain access to genomic information via a metagenomic approach. We examined Verrucomicrobia-like 16S rRNA gene sequences recovered from general bacterial and phylum-specific libraries, revealing a dominance of subdivisions 1 and 2. A PCR-based screening method was developed to identify inserts containing verrucomicrobial 16S rRNA genes within a large-insert metage-nomic library, and on screening of 28 800 clones, four fosmids were identified as containing verrucomicrobial genomic DNA. Full-length sequencing of fosmi