Marine biofilms constitute a bank of hidden microbial diversity and functional potential

Weipeng Zhang, Wei Ding, Yong-Xin Li, Chunkit Tam, Salim Bougouffa, Ruojun Wang, Bite Pei, Hoyin Chiang, Pokman Leung, Yanhong Lu, Jin Sun, He Fu, Vladimir B Bajic, Hongbin Liu, Nicole S. Webster and Pei-Yuan Qian ()
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Weipeng Zhang: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Wei Ding: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Yong-Xin Li: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Chunkit Tam: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Salim Bougouffa: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Ruojun Wang: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Bite Pei: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Hoyin Chiang: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Pokman Leung: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Yanhong Lu: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Jin Sun: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
He Fu: University of Georgia
Vladimir B Bajic: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Hongbin Liu: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Nicole S. Webster: Australian Institute of Marine Science
Pei-Yuan Qian: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Recent big data analyses have illuminated marine microbial diversity from a global perspective, focusing on planktonic microorganisms. Here, we analyze 2.5 terabases of newly sequenced datasets and the Tara Oceans metagenomes to study the diversity of biofilm-forming marine microorganisms. We identify more than 7,300 biofilm-forming ‘species’ that are undetected in seawater analyses, increasing the known microbial diversity in the oceans by more than 20%, and provide evidence for differentiation across oceanic niches. Generation of a gene distribution profile reveals a functional core across the biofilms, comprised of genes from a variety of microbial phyla that may play roles in stress responses and microbe-microbe interactions. Analysis of 479 genomes reconstructed from the biofilm metagenomes reveals novel biosynthetic gene clusters and CRISPR-Cas systems. Our data highlight the previously underestimated ocean microbial diversity, and allow mining novel microbial lineages and gene resources.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-08463-z

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