Unraveling the functional dark matter through global metagenomics.

Pavlopoulos, Georgios A., Baltoumas, Fotis A., Liu, Sirui, Selvitopi, Oguz, Camargo, Antonio Pedro, Nayfach, Stephen, Azad, Ariful, Roux, Simon, Call, Lee, Ivanova, Natalia N., Chen, I. Min, Paez-Espino, David, Karatzas, Evangelos, Acinas, Silvia G., Ahlgren, Nathan, Attwood, Graeme, Baldrian, Petr, Berry, Timothy, Bhatnagar, Jennifer M., Bhaya, Devaki, Bidle, Kay D., Blanchard, Jeffrey L., Boyd, Eric S., Bowen, Jennifer L., Bowman, Jeff, Brawley, Susan H., Brodie, Eoin L., Brune, Andreas, Bryant, Donald A., Buchan, Alison, Cadillo-Quiroz, Hinsby, Campbell, Barbara J., Cavicchioli, Ricardo, Chuckran, Peter F., Coleman, Maureen, Crowe, Sean, Colman, Daniel R., Currie, Cameron R., Dangl, Jeff, Delherbe, Nathalie, Denef, Vincent J., Dijkstra, Paul, Distel, Daniel D., Eloe-Fadrosh, Emiley, Fisher, Kirsten, Francis, Christopher, Garoutte, Aaron, Gaudin, Amelie, Gerwick, Lena, Godoy-Vitorino, Filipa, Guerra, Peter, Guo, Jiarong, Habteselassie, Mussie Y., Hallam, Steven J., Hatzenpichler, Roland, Hentschel, Ute , Hess, Matthias, Hirsch, Ann M., Hug, Laura A., Hultman, Jenni, Hunt, Dana E., Huntemann, Marcel, Inskeep, William P., James, Timothy Y., Jansson, Janet, Johnston, Eric R., Kalyuzhnaya, Marina, Kelly, Charlene N., Kelly, Robert M., Klassen, Jonathan L., Nüsslein, Klaus, Kostka, Joel E., Lindow, Steven, Lilleskov, Erik, Lynes, Mackenzie, Mackelprang, Rachel, Martin, Francis M., Mason, Olivia U., McKay, R. Michael, McMahon, Katherine, Mead, David A., Medina, Monica, Meredith, Laura K., Mock, Thomas, Mohn, William W., Moran, Mary Ann, Murray, Alison, Neufeld, Josh D., Neumann, Rebecca, Norton, Jeanette M., Partida-Martinez, Laila P., Pietrasiak, Nicole, Pelletier, Dale, Reddy, T. B. K., Reese, Brandi Kiel, Reichart, Nicholas J., Reiss, Rebecca, Saito, Mak A., Schachtman, Daniel P., Seshadri, Rekha, Shade, Ashley, Sherman, David, Simister, Rachel, Simon, Holly, Stegen, James, Stepanauskas, Ramunas, Sullivan, Matthew, Sumner, Dawn Y., Teeling, Hanno, Thamatrakoln, Kimberlee, Treseder, Kathleen, Tringe, Susannah, Vaishampayan, Parag, Valentine, David L., Waldo, Nicholas B., Waldrop, Mark P., Walsh, David A., Ward, David M., Wilkins, Michael, Whitman, Thea, Woolet, Jamie, Woyke, Tanja, Iliopoulos, Ioannis, Konstantinidis, Konstantinos, Tiedje, James M., Pett-Ridge, Jennifer, Baker, David, Visel, Axel, Ouzounis, Christos A., Ovchinnikov, Sergey, Buluç, Aydin and Kyrpides, Nikos C. (2023) Unraveling the functional dark matter through global metagenomics. Open Access Nature, 622 (7983). pp. 594-602. DOI 10.1038/s41586-023-06583-7.

[thumbnail of s41586-023-06583-7.pdf]
Preview
Text
s41586-023-06583-7.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0.

Download (9MB) | Preview

Supplementary data:

Abstract

Metagenomes encode an enormous diversity of proteins, reflecting a multiplicity of functions and activities1,2. Exploration of this vast sequence space has been limited to a comparative analysis against reference microbial genomes and protein families derived from those genomes. Here, to examine the scale of yet untapped functional diversity beyond what is currently possible through the lens of reference genomes, we develop a computational approach to generate reference-free protein families from the sequence space in metagenomes. We analyse 26,931 metagenomes and identify 1.17 billion protein sequences longer than 35 amino acids with no similarity to any sequences from 102,491 reference genomes or the Pfam database3. Using massively parallel graph-based clustering, we group these proteins into 106,198 novel sequence clusters with more than 100 members, doubling the number of protein families obtained from the reference genomes clustered using the same approach. We annotate these families on the basis of their taxonomic, habitat, geographical and gene neighbourhood distributions and, where sufficient sequence diversity is available, predict protein three-dimensional models, revealing novel structures. Overall, our results uncover an enormously diverse functional space, highlighting the importance of further exploring the microbial functional dark matter.

Document Type: Article
Keywords: Systems biology; Metagenomes; environmental sciences; computational biology and bioinformatics
Research affiliation: MPG
Scripps
Woods Hole
OceanRep > GEOMAR > FB3 Marine Ecology > FB3-MS Marine Symbioses
Main POF Topic: PT6: Marine Life
Refereed: Yes
Open Access Journal?: No
Publisher: Nature Research
Related URLs:
Date Deposited: 31 Jan 2024 13:47
Last Modified: 20 Jan 2025 08:35
URI: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/59876

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item