Isolation by distance in the spore-forming soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus.

Genetic differentiation between spatially separated populations within a species is commonly observed in plants and animals, but its existence in microbes has long been a contentious issue. Traditionally, many microbial ecologists have reasoned that microbes are not limited by dispersal as a result of their immense numbers and microscopic size. In this view, the absence of barriers to gene flow between populations would prevent differentiation of populations by genetic drift and hinder local adaptation. Myxococcus xanthus is a globally distributed, spore-forming bacterium that offers a robust test for genetic differentiation among populations because sporulation is expected to enhance dispersal. Using multi-locus sequence data, we show here that both diversity and the degree of differentiation between populations increase as a function of distance in M. xanthus. Populations are consistently differentiated at scales exceeding 10(2)-10(3) km, and isolation by distance, the divergence of populations by genetic drift due to limited dispersal, is responsible. Our results provide new insights into how genetic diversity within species of free-living microbes is distributed from centimeter to global scales.