Abstract
Predicting the total number of microbial cells on Earth and exploring the full diversity of life are fundamental research concepts that have undergone paradigm shifts in the genomic era. In this issue, Lloyd and colleagues (K. G. Lloyd, A. D. Steen, J. L. Ladau, J. Yin, and L. Crosby, mSystems 3:e00055-18, https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00055-18, 2018) present results that combine these two concepts by estimating the total diversity of all cells from Earth's environments. Leveraging publicly available amplicon, metagenomic, and metatranscriptomic datasets, they determined that nearly all environments are dominated by uncultured lineages, with the exception of humans and human-associated habitats. They define a new concept: phylogenetically diverse noncultured cells (PDNC). Unlike viable but nonculturable cells (VBNC), PDNC are microorganisms for which traditional isolation techniques may never succeed. Lloyd et al. estimate that the majority of microorganisms in Earth's ecosystems may be PDNC and conclude that culture-independent methods combined with innovative culturing techniques may be required to understand the ecology and physiology of these abundant and divergent microorganisms.
Highlights
Predicting the total number of microbial cells on Earth and exploring the full diversity of life are fundamental research concepts that have undergone paradigm shifts in the genomic era
Attempts to characterize microbial life on Earth typically fall into two research categories. Either they seek to quantify the total number of microbial cells on the planet or they strive to describe the entirety of microbial diversity from phylogenetic and taxonomic perspectives [4,5,6]
New work from Lloyd and colleagues [7], published in this issue, attempts to connect these two categories by defining the diversity of all microbial cells from available sequence data derived from Earth’s diverse environments. Their results suggest that the majority of microorganisms detected within most samples affiliate with divergent and uncultured lineages, despite these microbial cells being relatively abundant and likely important to ecosystem functioning within their respective source environments [7]
Summary
Predicting the total number of microbial cells on Earth and exploring the full diversity of life are fundamental research concepts that have undergone paradigm shifts in the genomic era. New work from Lloyd and colleagues [7], published in this issue, attempts to connect these two categories by defining the diversity of all microbial cells from available sequence data derived from Earth’s diverse environments. Their results suggest that the majority of microorganisms detected within most samples affiliate with divergent and uncultured lineages, despite these microbial cells being relatively abundant and likely important to ecosystem functioning within their respective source environments [7].
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