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Updated: Feb 8, 2026
13:51
Analyzing Gene Expression from Marine Microbial Communities using Environmental Transcriptomics
Published on: February 18, 2009
12.9K
A strong link between marine microbial community composition and function challenges the idea of functional
Pierre E Galand1, Olivier Pereira2, Corentin Hochart3
1Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Ecogéochimie des Environnements Benthiques (LECOB), Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls, Banyuls sur Mer, France. pierre.galand@obs-banyuls.fr.
The ISME Journal
|June 22, 2018
Summary
Marine microbial communities are not functionally redundant. Shifts in species composition significantly alter overall community functions, revealing a vast diversity of microbial metabolism and genetic potential in the ocean.
Area of Science:
- Marine microbiology
- Metagenomics
- Microbial ecology
Background:
- Marine microbial communities exhibit high species diversity.
- The concept of functional redundancy has been a prevailing hypothesis to explain this diversity.
- Functional redundancy suggests different species perform identical metabolic processes and are interchangeable.
Purpose of the Study:
- To challenge the hypothesis of functional redundancy in marine microbial communities.
- To investigate the relationship between taxonomic and functional diversity in marine microbes.
- To explore the metabolic and genetic potential within marine microbial ecosystems.
Main Methods:
- Metagenomic sequencing of microbial communities from a coastal northwestern Mediterranean site.
- Analysis of all metagenomic reads (whole metagenome) rather than solely annotated genes.
- Monitoring community composition shifts across temporal and spatial scales.
Main Results:
- Community composition shifts were found to alter overall functional attributes.
- Diverse marine microbial communities possess a high diversity of potential proteins.
- A strong similarity was observed between taxonomic and functional community compositions when analyzing all metagenomic data.
Conclusions:
- The hypothesis of complete functional redundancy in marine microbial communities is refuted.
- Marine microbial diversity reflects a profound diversity of microbial metabolism.
- Significant undiscovered genetic potential exists within marine microbial life, underscoring the importance of comprehensive metagenomic analysis.
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