Chapter 21, Problem 6CHI

In 2014 a team of Chinese and Czech microbiologists reported the discovery a new microbe capable of photoheterotrophic growth isolated from a freshwater lake in the Gobi Desert. The group performed many experiments to characterize this isolate, including 16S rRNA followed by whole-genome sequencing. Predict what they discovered in these analyses that supported the conclusions that the microbe is a member of the phylum Gemmatimonadetes, that it is a photoheterotroph, and that it acquired its genes for photosynthesis via horizontal gene transfer from purple sulfur bacteria.