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Science 18 August 2006:
Vol. 313. no. 5789, p. 918
DOI: 10.1126/science.1121225
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Technical Comments

Comment on "Computational Improvements Reveal Great Bacterial Diversity and High Metal Toxicity in Soil"

Igor Volkov,1,2* Jayanth R. Banavar,1 Amos Maritan3

Based on analysis of the reassociation kinetics of bacterial DNA in soil, Gans et al. (Reports, 26 August 2005, p. 1387) claimed that millions of microbe species existed in 10 grams of pristine soil and that 99.9% of the diversity was lost as a result of toxic metals. We show that the data do not support these startling conclusions unambiguously.

1 Department of Physics, 104 Davey Lab, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
2 Department of Biology, 208 Mueller Lab, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
3 Dipartimento di Fisica Galileo Galilei, Università di Padova and Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica Della Materia, via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: volkov{at}psu.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)