The total microbiome functions in bacteria and fungi.

The total microbiome functions in bacteria and fungi.
J Proteomics. 2019 Dec 18;:103623
Authors: Starke R, Capek P, Morais D, Callister SJ, Jehmlich N
Abstract
Unveiling the relationship between phylogeny and function of the microbiome is crucial to determine its contribution to ecosystem functioning. However, while there is a considerable amount of information on microbial phylogenetic diversity, our understanding of its relationship to functional diversity is still scarce. Here we predicted the total microbiome functions of bacteria and fungi on Earth using the total known functions from level 3 of KEGG Orthology by modelling the increase of functions with increasing diversity of bacteria or fungi. For bacteria and fungi, the unsaturated model described the data significantly better (for both P < 2.2e-16), suggesting the presence of two types of functions. Widespread functions ubiquitous in every living organism that make up two thirds of our current knowledge of microbiome functions are separated from rare functions from specialised enzymes present in only a few species. Given previous estimates on species richness, we predicted a global total of 35.5 million functions in bacteria and 3.2 million in fungi; of which only 0.02% and 0.14% are known today. Our approach highlights the necessity of novel and more sophisticated methods to unveil the entirety of rare functions to fully understand the involvement of the microbiome i...

Source: Journal of Proteomics - December 17, 2019 Category: Biochemistry Authors: Starke R, Capek P, Morais D, Callister SJ, Jehmlich N Tags: J Proteomics Source Type: research