Insights into the physiological and metabolic features of <i>Thalassobacterium</i> , a novel genus of <i>Verrucomicrobiota</i> with the potential to drive the carbon cycle

<i>Verrucomicrobiota</i> are widely distributed and able to utilize a variety of difficult-to-biodegrade polysaccharides, which have a significant impact on the marine carbon cycle. However, there are not enough pure culture strains of <i>Verrucomicrobiota</i>, as hard-to-cultivate bacteria, for us to study. Here, our study reports a new genus in the phylum <i>Verrucomicrobiota</i> and investigates their ability to degrade and synthesize a variety of polysaccharides as well as the mechanism of utilizing difficult-to-degrade polysaccharides. We also explored their special performance on carbon utilization in marine nitrogen-deficient environments. This contributes to deepening our understanding of the involvement of marine microorganisms in the marine carbon cycle.