Worth noting: over 217 million of those genes came from hadal ecosystems, 6 to 11 km down. The hardest place on Earth to sample turned out to be one of the richest genetic libraries we have. 🧪 #marinelife
Dr Craig R McClainA new catalog of deep-sea microbial genes, built from 2,138 samples, added 502 million genes and expanded known ocean gene diversity by 51%. The authors call the deep sea "a unique evolutionary engine driving the emergence of functionally distinctive enzymatic traits." #marinelife