Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Microbial communities underpin ocean productivity and biogeochemistry, but their functional adaptation to environmental gradients remains poorly understood. Codon usage bias (CUB), a marker of translational efficiency, constrains growth rate potential, yet its role in functional adaptation across natural communities is underexplored. By analysing 589 metagenome-derived microbial communities from the global ocean, we demonstrate that CUB in 320 metabolism-related gene groups capture genomic adaptation to distinct temperature and nutrient concentrations. We identified four adaptation signatures shaped by distinct temperature-nutrient regimes, revealing how microbes optimize protein synthesis in their ecological niche. This genome-centric approach deepens our understanding of functional adaptation in uncultured marine microbes and provides a framework to inform ocean biogeochemical models and predict microbial responses to climate-driven changes.
Institutions: Laboratoire d'Océanographie Microbienne, École Centrale de Nantes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire des Sciences du Numérique de Nantes, Nantes Université, Station Biologique de Roscoff, Sorbonne Université, Adaptation et Diversité en Milieu Marin, Université Laval, Takuvik Joint International Laboratory, Québec-Océan, Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls-sur-Mer
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Life below water
Open Access status: green
Awards: BlueRemediomics: Harnessing the marine microbiome for novel sustainable biogenics and ecosystem services, An integrative taxonomy to unravel the links between ecology and evolution in a-cyanobacteria, a major component of aquatic microbial communities (TaxCy), Community metabolic modelling of marine microbial plankton interactions in space and time, G7080048889, G7343488542
OpenAlex ID: W7216175798