2026年7月22日出版的《自然》杂志发表了澳大利亚海洋科学研究所Yun Kit Yeoh课题组的最新成果，揭示了大堡礁的浮游微生物群。

在这里，课题组研究人员展示了大堡礁微生物基因组数据库（GBR-MGD），其中包括从大堡礁海水样品中获得的5283个原核基因组，这些基因组以纳米孔和Illumina测序为主题，包括一些代表性不足的群体的高质量基因组。该团队表明，由于菌株异质性和低GC百分比测序偏差，标准短读装配错过了这些人群。GBR-MGD还包括20个染色体水平的微真核生物和808,585个病毒基因组，包括一个新描述的海洋病毒分支。研究组展示了GBR-MGD在识别能够可靠地预测珊瑚礁管理措施（如海洋保护区的建立）效果的指示分类群方面的效用。

据悉，大型基因组数据库显著提高了人们对海洋微生物的认识。尽管这些研究主要集中在原核生物上，但来自许多优势海洋谱系的基因组，如远洋杆菌和原绿球藻，明显缺乏代表性。

附：英文原文

Title: The planktonic microbiome of the Great Barrier Reef

Author: Robbins, Steven, Terzin, Marko, Dougan, Katherine, Zaugg, Julian, Bell, Sara C., Laffy, Patrick W., Engelberts, J. Pamela, L Cao, Kim-Anh, Gruber, Renee K., Webster, Nicole S., Bourne, David G., Hugenholtz, Philip, Yeoh, Yun Kit

Issue&Volume: 2026-07-22

Abstract: Large genome databases have markedly improved our understanding of marine microorganisms1,2,3,4,5. Although these resources have focused on prokaryotes, genomes from many dominant marine lineages, such as Pelagibacter and Prochlorococcus, are conspicuously underrepresented. Here we present the Great Barrier Reef Microbial Genomes Database (GBR-MGD), comprising 5,283 prokaryotic genomes obtained from Great Barrier Reef seawater samples using Nanopore and Illumina sequencing, including a collection of high-quality genomes of underrepresented groups. We show that standard short-read assemblies miss these populations owing to a combination of strain heterogeneity and low-GC-percentage sequencing bias. The GBR-MGD also comprises 20 chromosome-level picoeukaryote and 808,585 viral genomes, including a newly described clade of marine Crassvirales. We demonstrate the utility of the GBR-MGD to identify indicator taxa that can reliably predict the effects of reef management practices, such as the establishment of marine protected zones.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10778-z

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10778-z

期刊信息

Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504

官方网址：http://www.nature.com/

投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html