The influence of depth on the global deep-sea plasmidome.

ABSTRACT: Plasmids play a crucial role in facilitating genetic exchange and enhancing the adaptability of microbial communities. Despite their importance, environmental plasmids remain understudied, particularly those in fragile and underexplored ecosystems such as the deep-sea. In this paper we implemented a bioinformatics pipeline to study the composition, diversity, and functional attributes of plasmid communities (plasmidome) in 81 deep-sea metagenomes from the Tara and Malaspina expeditions, sampled from the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans at depths ranging from 270 to 4005 m. We observed an association between depth and plasmid traits, with the 270-1000 m range (mesopelagic samples) exhibiting the highest number of plasmids and the largest plasmid sizes. Plasmids of Alphaproteobacteria an

SUBMITTER: Calderon-Osorno M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11757743 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature