The hadal trench is the deepest part of the global ocean and harbors highly abundant microbial cells. However, the diversity and function of the majority of microbial communities in this part of the ocean are still unclear. Here, we collected 35 metagenomes from three push cores across different sites in both the northern and southern Yap trench to construct a comprehensive gene and genome dataset. A total of 32 million non-redundant genes were predicted from the whole metagenome datasets, with 63% assigned to known functional groups based on currently available databases. A total of 404 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) with completeness >50% and contamination <10% were retrieved, and their taxonomy was highly diverse across 26 phyla. Alpha- and Gammaproteobacteria, Phycisphaerae, Nitrospiria, and Dehalococcoidia were dominant classes across all samples. The nonredundant gene and MAG datasets are valuable resources for advancing our understanding of the diversity, composition, and functions of microbiota in the sediment of the hadal trench.
Niu et al. (Wed,) studied this question.