Abstract

Changes occurring in polar areas significantly affect climate dynamics at other latitudes and global climate processes. Microorganisms are the foundation of the marine food web, as such we need to understand how they adapt and thrive, as well as forecast their fate in a future ocean impacted by anthropogenic change. Predicting the future of polar ecosystems requires understanding the responses of polar microorganisms to environmental change, as they are the main drivers of global biogeochemical cycles. However, little is known about the ecology, metabolic potential and activity or evolution of microbes in polar Oceans at the highest resolution possible: at genome level. We recently analyzed Arctic seawater metagenomes and metatranscriptomes collected at various depths and different seasons during the Tara Oceans Polar Circle expedition. This effort resulted in 3,550 metagenomic bins, of which 530 correspond to Metagenome Assembled Genomes (MAGs) that make up the first Arctic MAGs genome catalogue. This Arctic genome catalogue is constituted by 526 different species, of which 83% are novel, with 60% of genomes showing an exclusively polar distribution.

Silvia G. Acinas

Staff scientist