Observations argue against a mutualistic mode of host dependence and reveal a second, distinct endpoint of cellular reduction: the informational core may represent the practical lower bound for a cell that retains the capacity to replicate and express its own genome.
Ryo Harada, Yuki Nishimura, Mami Nomura et al.· Current Biology· 0 citations
This study explored the function of the unknome of the SAR11 clade, the most abundant bacterial lineage in the ocean, with a particular focus on genes that provide insight into its ecology, and identified candidate viral defense systems within the unknome.
The SAR11 Genome Atlas is presented, an interactive ortholog group (OG)-centered web resource that integrates 542 SAR11 genomes, including all 132 cultured strain genomes, with functional annotations, synteny, phylogenetic distribution, metatranscriptomic expression, and predicted protein structure information.