Coral microbiomes as reservoirs of unknown genomic and biosynthetic diversity
Nature • • world
Key Points:
- The Tara Pacific expedition collected coral and seawater samples from 99 reefs across 32 Pacific islands, targeting three reef-building coral genera for metagenomic analysis, with DNA extracted and sequenced to generate extensive metagenomic data.
- Publicly available metagenomic datasets from 15 coral and 16 sponge studies were integrated, totaling over 783 samples, and processed using quality control, assembly, binning, and genome quality evaluation to build a comprehensive reef microbiome genome collection.
- Species-level clustering was performed using average nucleotide identity, with genomes annotated taxonomically and functionally, including biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), enabling assessment of microbial diversity, host specificity, and biosynthetic potential within coral reef microbiomes.
- Candidate
