Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42675165›Full record

ArticleNature biotechnology2026

A genomic catalog of Earth's bacterial and archaeal symbionts.

Juan C Villada, Yumary M Vasquez, Gitta Szabó, Ewan Whittaker-Walker, Miguel F Romero, Sarina Qin, Neha Varghese, Emiley A Eloe-Fadrosh, Nikos C Kyrpides, SymGs data consortium and 3 more

Abstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Nature biotechnology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

Juan C VilladaDOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA. jvillada@lbl.gov.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2216-4279
Yumary M VasquezDOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6006-8873
Gitta SzabóDOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0397-3022
Ewan Whittaker-WalkerDOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Miguel F RomeroDOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3799-717X
Sarina QinSchool of Natural Sciences, University of California Merced, Merced, CA, USA.
Neha VargheseDOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Emiley A Eloe-FadroshDOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8162-1276
Nikos C KyrpidesDOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6131-0462
SymGs data consortium
Axel ViselDOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4130-7784
Tanja WoykeDOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9485-5637
Frederik SchulzDOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA. fschulz@lbl.gov.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4932-4677

Funding

DOE | Office of Science (SC) https://ror.org/04xm1d337
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Microbial symbiosis drives the functional and phylogenomic diversification of life on Earth yet remains underexplored because of culturing challenges. This study used machine learning (ML) to predict symbiotic lifestyles in more than a hundred thousand microbial genomes from diverse environmental metagenome samples and reference genomes. Predictions were performed using symclatron, an ML framework developed to identify genomic signatures of symbionts. Predictions were deposited in a catalog we established called Symbiont Genomes (SymGs). The results indicate that 15-23% of uncultivated microorganisms likely engage in symbiotic relationships with other organisms, categorized as host-associated or obligate intracellular lifestyles, and are present in half of all known bacterial and archaeal phyla. We also identify genomic signatures of symbiotic lifestyles, including the loss of certain metabolic functions and the differential presence of metabolic modules that may enable host-dependent living. The symclatron software and the SymGs catalog represent valuable resources for studying symbioses, potentially facilitating future mechanistic investigations and engineering of host-microorganism associations.

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.