From genomics to microevolution and ecology: the case of Salinibacter ruber

Salinibacter ruber is an extremely halophilic bacterium inhabiting environments that are normally dominated by halophilic Archaea. This bacterium shows a high degree of genomic microdiversity illustrated by the fact that new strains with different genomic patterns (and identical ribosomal operons) are continuously isolated from the same ponds where the original strains were retrieved. Here, we investigate the meaning of this microdiversity by comparing the genomic sequences of closely related S. ruber strains with a main focus on the species pangenome and the putative role of phages and lateral gene transfer in the shaping of the microdiversity