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Originally published in Science Express on 24 July 2003
Science 15 August 2003:
Vol. 301. no. 5635, pp. 925 - 926
DOI: 10.1126/science.1089242
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Perspectives

MICROBIOLOGY:
Biogeography for Bacteria

Tom Fenchel

Multicellular animals and plants may face geographic barriers to migration and dispersal, enabling isolated populations to diverge into different species. Because of their small size and enormous abundance, unicellular organisms are thought to be able to disperse unhindered around the world. In his Perspective, Fenchel discusses studies published here (Whitaker et al.) and elsewhere, which suggest that populations of thermophilic microorganisms have diverged over evolutionary time as a result of geographic isolation.

The author is at the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, DK.-3000 Helsingør, Denmark. E-mail: tfenchel{at}zi.ku.dk

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