ReviewFrontiers in microbiology2021
A Genomic Perspective Across Earth's Microbiomes Reveals That Genome Size in Archaea and Bacteria Is Linked to Ecosystem Type and Trophic Strategy.
Review in Frontiers in microbiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 70 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
70 citing papers in PubMed, 104 citations in OpenAlex.
- Unveiling the Taxonomic Diversity and Unprecedented Biosynthetic Treasure of the Phylum Myxococcota.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Genomic characteristics and geographical distribution of uncultivated soil prokaryotes.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Evolutionary insights into an ancient fungal transition from land to sea.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Diversity, ecology, cell biology and evolution of the Asgard archaea.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- The heterogeneous selection landscape of genome evolution in prokaryotes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Uncovering the ecophysiological potential of Motilimonas through genomic profiling analysis.BMC genomics · 2026Article
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- Cross-feeding options define genome evolution and community assembly of deep groundwater microbiome.Environmental microbiome · 2026Article
- Constructing a "periodic table" of bacteria to map diversity in trait space.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Microbial Metabolism: Primary and Secondary Metabolites.Progress in molecular and subcellular biology · 2026Review
- Microbial cohorts: bringing ecological meaning to the modularity concept of co-occurrence networks.ISME communications · 2026Article
- The heterogeneous selection landscape of genome evolution in prokaryotes.Research square · 2025Article
- Widespread potential for phototrophy and convergent reduction of lifecycle complexity in the dimorphic order Caulobacterales.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Microbial model communities exhibit widespread metabolic interdependencies.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Nitrogen-fixing microbes gain genes in diverse types of living environments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Soil Nutrient Enrichment Induces Trade-Offs in Bacterial Life-History Strategies Promoting Plant Productivity.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- National-scale biogeography and function of river and stream bacterial biofilm communities.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Drought Drives Extracellular Polymeric Substances Accumulation and Functional Shifts in Streambed Biofilm Communities.Microbial ecology · 2025Article
- Article
10 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Our view of genome size in Archaea and Bacteria has remained skewed as the data has been dominated by genomes of microorganisms that have been cultivated under laboratory settings. However, the continuous effort to catalog Earth's microbiomes, specifically propelled by recent extensive work on uncultivated microorganisms, provides an opportunity to revise our perspective on genome size distribution. We present a meta-analysis that includes 26,101 representative genomes from 3 published genomic databases; metagenomic assembled genomes (MAGs) from GEMs and stratfreshDB, and isolates from GTDB. Aquatic and host-associated microbial genomes present on average the smallest estimated genome sizes (3.1 and 3.0 Mbp, respectively). These are followed by terrestrial microbial genomes (average 3.7 Mbp), and genomes from isolated microorganisms (average 4.3 Mbp). On the one hand, aquatic and host-associated ecosystems present smaller genomes sizes in genera of phyla with genome sizes above 3 Mbp. On the other hand, estimated genome size in phyla with genomes under 3 Mbp showed no difference between ecosystems. Moreover, we observed that when using 95% average nucleotide identity (ANI) as an estimator for genetic units, only 3% of MAGs cluster together with genomes from isolated microorganisms. Although there are potential methodological limitations when assembling and binning MAGs, we found that in genome clusters containing both environmental MAGs and isolate genomes, MAGs were estimated only an average 3.7% smaller than isolate genomes. Even when assembly and binning methods introduce biases, estimated genome size of MAGs and isolates are very similar. Finally, to better understand the ecological drivers of genome size, we discuss on the known and the overlooked factors that influence genome size in different ecosystems, phylogenetic groups, and trophic strategies.
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