Microbial ecosystems and ecological driving forces in the deepest ocean sediments

Systematic exploration of the hadal zone, Earth's deepest oceanic realm, has historically faced technical limitations. Here, we collected 1,648 sediment samples at 6-11 km in the Mariana Trench, Yap Trench, and Philippine Basin for the Mariana Trench Environment and Ecology Research (MEER) project. Metagenomic and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing generated the 92-Tbp MEER dataset, comprising 7,564 species (89.4% unreported), indicating high taxonomic novelty. Unlike in reported environments, neutral drift played a minimal role, while homogeneous selection (HoS, 50.5%) and dispersal limitation (DL, 43.8%) emerged as dominant ecological drivers. HoS favored streamlined genomes with key functions for hadal adaptation, e.g., aromatic compound utilization (oligotrophic adaptation) and antioxidation (high-pressure adaptation). Conversely, DL promoted versatile metabolism with larger genomes. These findings indicated that environmental factors drive the high taxonomic novelty in the hadal zone, advancing our understanding of the ecological mechanisms governing microbial ecosystems in such an extreme oceanic environment.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Cell
Published
2025-03-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2024.12.036
Citations
29
Primary Topic
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
49.77
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Microbial ecosystems and ecological driving forces in the deepest ocean sediments

Weishu Zhao, Shiyu Xu, Huanming Yang, Shanya Cai et al.
29 citations
Cell
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
49.77
article

Microbial ecosystems and ecological driving forces in the deepest ocean sediments

Weishu Zhao, Shiyu Xu, Huanming Yang, Shanya Cai, Jiahui Zhu, Yinzhao Wang, Jizhong Z. Zhou, Linlin Luo, Karsten Kristiansen, Chenguang Tang, Liuyang Li, Liang Tian, Qianyue Ji, Zhenbo Lv, Zewei Song, Jing Wang, Yunfeng Yang, Jie Fan, Fangfang Jiang, Qian Cen, Xiaonan Lin, Taoran Song, Kang Ding, Chuanxu Chen, Ying Gu, Aoran Hu, Xiaofeng Wei, Feng Mu, Shanshan Huang, Guohai Hu, Guohua Wu, Mo Han, Yaoxun Hu, Guoqiang Mai, Changhao Zhou, Ming Ni, Tao Yang, Long‐Qing Chen, Xiaohan Wang, Haibin Zhang, Jiayu Chen, Jun Wang, Qi Qi, Dong Li, Bó Wáng, Jianwei Chen, Shanshan Liu, Yu Zhang, Xun Xu, Weijia Zhang, Liping Zhan, Shun Chen, Nannan Zhang, Xiang Xiao, Weiwen Wang, Shuangquan Liu, Liang Meng, Chao Fang, James Jeng-Weei Lin, Haixin Chen, Jian Wang
article en
29 citations

Abstract

Systematic exploration of the hadal zone, Earth's deepest oceanic realm, has historically faced technical limitations. Here, we collected 1,648 sediment samples at 6-11 km in the Mariana Trench, Yap Trench, and Philippine Basin for the Mariana Trench Environment and Ecology Research (MEER) project. Metagenomic and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing generated the 92-Tbp MEER dataset, comprising 7,564 species (89.4% unreported), indicating high taxonomic novelty. Unlike in reported environments, neutral drift played a minimal role, while homogeneous selection (HoS, 50.5%) and dispersal limitation (DL, 43.8%) emerged as dominant ecological drivers. HoS favored streamlined genomes with key functions for hadal adaptation, e.g., aromatic compound utilization (oligotrophic adaptation) and antioxidation (high-pressure adaptation). Conversely, DL promoted versatile metabolism with larger genomes. These findings indicated that environmental factors drive the high taxonomic novelty in the hadal zone, advancing our understanding of the ecological mechanisms governing microbial ecosystems in such an extreme oceanic environment.

CellVol. 188(5)
BGI Group (China) (CN), Qingdao University (CN), University of Copenhagen (DK), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Tsinghua–Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (CN), Botswana Geoscience Institute (BW), Sanya University (CN), China National GeneBank (CN), Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering (CN), BGI Research (CN), Hainan Tropical Ocean University (CN), University of Oklahoma (US), Tsinghua University (CN)
Life below water
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
49.77
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.