Functional, physiological traits are the underlying drivers of niche differentiation. A common framework related to niches occupied by terrestrial prokaryotes is based on copiotrophy or oligotrophy, where resource investment is primarily in either rapid growth or stress tolerance, respectively. A quantitative trait-based approach sought relationships between taxa, traits and niche in terrestrial prokaryotes. With 175 taxa from 11 Phyla and 35 Families (n = 5 per Family), traits were considered as discrete counts of shared genome-encoded proteins. Trait composition strongly supported non-random functional distributions as preferential clustering of related taxa via unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean. Trait similarity between taxa increased as taxonomic rank decreased. A suite of Random Forest models identified traits significantly enriched or depleted in taxonomic groups. These traits conveyed functions related to rapid growth, nutrient acquisition and stress tolerance consistent with their presence in copiotroph-oligotroph niches. Hierarchical clustering of traits identified a clade of competitive, copiotrophic Families resilient to oxidative stress versus glycosyltransferase-enriched oligotrophic Families resistant to antimicrobials and environmental stress. However, the formation of five clades suggested a more nuanced view to describe niche differentiation in terrestrial systems is necessary. We suggest considering traits involved in both resource investment and acquisition when predicting niche.

中文翻译：

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功能性状关系证明了陆地原核生物的生活策略

功能性，生理性状是利基分化的潜在驱动力。与陆生原核生物占据的生态位有关的通用框架是基于同营养或寡营养，其中资源投资分别主要是快速增长或胁迫耐受性。一种基于数量性状的方法在陆地原核生物中寻求分类，性状和生态位之间的关系。拥有来自11个Phyla和35个家庭的175个分类单元（n=每个家庭5个），将性状视为共享的基因组编码蛋白质的离散计数。特质组成通过算术平均值的非加权成对组方法强烈支持非随机功能分布作为相关分类单元的优先聚类。分类等级之间的相似性随分类等级的降低而增加。一套随机森林模型确定了在分类学组中显着丰富或枯竭的特征。这些性状传达的功能与快速生长，养分获取和胁迫耐受性有关，与它们在嗜营养寡养生境中的存在一致。性状的等级聚类确定了竞争性，营养型家庭对氧化应激和富含糖基转移酶的寡营养家庭，具有抗微生物和环境胁迫的能力。然而，五个进化枝的形成表明有必要用更细致入微的观点来描述陆地系统中的生态位分化。我们建议在预测利基市场时考虑资源投资和收购都涉及的特征。