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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/23/great-barrier-reef-microbiome-mapped-as-researchers-discover-500-bacterial-species-previously-unknown-to-science>
"More than a decade after the human microbiome was comprehensively mapped,
scientists have now identified the vast communities of microbes that make up
the Great Barrier Reef.
Analysing DNA from seawater samples of 48 reefs, researchers have mapped the
microbiome of the Great Barrier Reef, documenting more than 360,000 distinct
viruses as well as more than 500 new bacterial species not previously known to
science.
The research, published in the journal
Nature, was led by scientists at the
University of Queensland and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).
Dr Yun Kit Yeoh, a senior research scientist at AIMS and a senior author of the
paper, described microorganisms as a “very important part of the reef
ecosystem” that underpinned marine food chains.
“Many of the microbes on the reef can photosynthesise … like plants, they can
take light energy [and] can convert carbon dioxide into oxygen.
“They are eaten by krill and other zooplankton which are then consumed by other
animals.
“We haven’t been able to really study a lot of them except for a select few
that we can grow properly in the lab on petri dishes.”
But recent technological advances have allowed scientists to sequence DNA taken
from the environment, giving a fuller picture of these microscopic communities.
The field – known as metagenomics – is akin to solving thousands of jigsaw
puzzles simultaneously; a single drop of seawater can contain the DNA of
thousands of different microbes.
“We wouldn’t have been able to do this, say, 10 years ago, but fortunately
computing power keeps increasing at an exponential rate,” said Prof Philip
Hugenholtz, a microbiologist at the University of Queensland and a senior
author on the paper."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
