Tara Oceans Polar Circle: Distribution and link between genetics and functional capacity of microbial genomes

Abstract

Tara Oceans, a consortium of academic scientists partnering with the Tara Foundation, sampled contrasting ecosystems of the world’s ocean from 2009 to 2012. The collection of environmental data and plankton (from viruses to metazoans)enabled later analyses on the genetic diversity of the plankton using High Throughput Sequencing approaches and cell imaging technologies. In 2013 Tara Oceans Polar Circle (TOPC) navigated the Arctic waters during spring, summer and the beginning of fall (May to October), extensively sampling the microbial planktonic communities. In total Tara Oceans has sampled 210 ecosystems in 20 biogeographic provinces. Our research team within the consortium of Tara Oceans has lead the analyses on the distribution of prokaryotes along the Arctic Polar Circle using different approaches: from flow cytometry to omics using metagenomics and single cell genomics. The analyses of 41 microbial metagenomes covering the whole Arctic Ocean from spring to early fall at different water depths has enabled the reconstruction of 2555 bacterial and archaeal Metagenomic Assembled Genomes (MAGs), pointing to novel phylum and classes of both bacteria and archaea. Additionally, we have retrieved Single Amplified Genomes (SAGs) from different TOPC samples with contrasted environmental features and sampling seasons compiling a total of 1005 SAGs with taxonomic affiliation. In summary, the combination of MAGs and SAGs will allow a deeper understanding of the functional capacity and evolutionary mechanisms underlying the keystone bacterial and archaeal species in the Arctic Ocean