Mobile genetic elements shape microbial diversity and functions in thawing permafrost soils
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Ecosystems are shaped by communities of microorganisms whose niches and impacts depend on functional profiles influenced by gene gains and losses. Culture-based experiments demonstrate that mobile genetic elements (MGEs) can mediate gene flux, but quantitative understanding of these dynamics in natural systems remains limited. Here we develop and apply a systematic, meta-omic framework to investigate MGEs in a complex natural system using an 8-year soil time series collected at Stordalen Mire, in Sweden's thawing permafrost margin. In this climate-critical peatland, we identify ~2.1 million MGE recombinases across 89 microbial phyla and assess ecological distributions, affected functions, past mobility and current activity. This revealed an active mobilome that shapes natural genetic diversity via differential impacts on major phyla and affects a wide range of functions, including metabolic genes involved in carbon flux and nutrient cycling. These findings and this analytic framework suggest avenues towards a better understanding of MGE diversity, activity, mobility and impacts across ecosystems.
Source: Nature Microbiology
Authors: Jiarong Guo, Samuel T. N. Aroney, Guillermo Domínguez-Huerta, Derek Smith, Dean Vik, Carlos Owusu-Ansah, Akbar Adjie Pratama, Sergei Solonenko, Funing Tian, Cristina Howard-Varona, Zhi-Ping Zhong, Aminata Fofana, Garrett J. Smith, Suzanne B. Hodgkins, Dylan Cronin, IsoGenie Field Teams 2010–2017, 2019, Darya Anderson, Kathryn Bennett, Sky Dominguez, Maria Florencia Fahnestock, Moira Hough, Joachim Jansen, Rhiannon Mondav, Apryl Perry, Gareth Trubl, Ruth K. Varner, EMERGE Coordinators, Patrick Crill, Jessica Gilman Ernakovich, Regis Ferriere, Mike Ibba, Malak M. Tfaily, Ruth K. Varner, Ahmed A. Zayed, Ben J. Woodcroft, Gene W. Tyson, Virginia I. Rich, Matthew B. Sullivan, Simon Roux, Sarah C. Bagby
Institutions: National Institutes of Health, United States National Library of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Translational Research Institute, Queensland University of Technology, Centro Oceanográfico de Málaga, Case Western Reserve University, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, University of Arizona, University of New Hampshire, Stockholm University, The University of Queensland, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, Institut de Biologie de l'École Normale Supérieure, Chapman University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Joint Genome Institute
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $12,690
OpenAlex ID: W7166508196