Environmental distribution and functions of the Atribacteria

Abstract:

Atribacteria is a new phylum covering the lineages of OP9 and JS1. Most of the members are uncultivated microorganisms, which are distributed widely in the natural environments and dominant in some environments, such as deep marine sediments, geothermal springs, and oil reservoirs. Studies based on genomic information indicate that Atribacteria are strictly anaerobic microorganisms and have the ability to degrade sugars, organic acids, and short chain n-alkanes, suggesting that they may play a key role in subsurface carbon cycling. However, due to the lack of representative pure culture strains, the physiological and biochemical functions of Atribacteria remain to be verified. In this paper, the discovery and development history of Atribacteria, and their environmental distribution and diversity were reviewed. The three proposed metabolic modes of Atribacteria were analyzed and future research directions in this field were also discussed.