“The idea was to go after underrepresented branches of microbial diversity – so-called Microbial Dark Matter – for which additional information would have a disproportionately large effect on the tree’s overall shape. In pursuit of these recluses, Rinke and his colleagues sampled nine different habitats that were likely to house exotic or otherwise overlooked organisms: the South Atlantic tropical gyre, the Hawaiian Pacific, the Gulf of Maine, the Homestake Mine in South Dakota, British Columbia’s Sakinaw Lake, the Great Boiling Spring in Nevada, the East Pacific Rise hydrothermal vent, sediment from the bottom of the Etoliko Lagoon in Greece, and a bioreactor.”
Learn more about the microbial dark matter study at http://archive.jgi.doe.gov/boldly-illuminating-biologys-dark-matter/.
Read the full story on Wired.