A deep-sea rare bacterium exhibits extraordinary metabolic versatility

The rare biosphere harbors immense microbial diversity, yet most low-abundance taxa remain uncultured and functionally enigmatic. Here, we isolated strain D14^T from deep-sea water, and propose to classify it as a novel species, Metabolovarius oceani sp. nov., within the novel family Metabolovariaceae fam. nov. M. oceani represents the first cultivated member of the candidate family NORP267, a globally distributed but elusive alphaproteobacterial lineage known only from metagenome-assembled genomes. It possesses broad metabolic capabilities, including CO₂ fixation, polyhydroxyalkanoate biosynthesis, complete denitrification and thiosulfate oxidation, and is capable of aerobic growth under both heterotrophic and autotrophic conditions and of anaerobic autotrophic denitrification via thiosulfate oxidation. Despite its versatile metabolic repertoire and global distribution, Metabolovariaceae remains consistently low in abundance across diverse habitats. The isolation of M. oceani permits direct experimental insights into the evolutionary adaptations, physiological resilience, and potential ecosystem roles of rare but metabolically versatile microorganisms within the microbial dark matter.