Hi guys, I am pretty sure that some strains have similar 16S rRNA sequences but have distinct metabolic repertoires. But I couldn't find any paper discussing about that. If you have a copy of this kind of paper, please send it to me. Thanks :)
I ask this question because I find in my research the diversity derived from functional gene array (GeoChip) is much more greater at phylum level than the 16S rRNA pyrosequencing illustrated (33 phyla vs. 11 phyla). It can be argued that functional gene probes couldn't suggest the exact phylogenetic assignment due to HGT across different species. But Geochip totally outrages 16S rRNA pyrosequencing, though the top 8 abundant phyla are quite similar.
Based on 16S rRNA analysis, betaproteobacteria is the predominant group. Could betaproteobacteria carries lots of genes derived from other phyla?
Homologous 16S rRNA does in noway means that they should have the same metabolic repertories. First of all see what is the metabolic route that is dealing with your studies, then find out the different enzymes involved and finally find out if each of these enzymes show significant polymorphism (from different databanks).
actually, it is absolutely common due to horizontal gene transfer mainly. I don`t know any specific paper, but if you`ll search for novel species description papers, you`ll find more than 1 isolates with particular differences in metabolism in many of them. Also you can check for core-pangenome papers of any species. The pangenomes are several times larger than core genomes, supporting different metabolisms among strains belonging to 1 species due to active HGT.
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