Spatiotemporal conservation of bacteria in the Trichodesmium microbiome

Trichodesmium subclades across the tropical and subtropical Atlantic, Western Tropical South Pacific, and Red Sea host unique core epibiont microbiomes, linked to subclade-specific heterotrophs.

• Why it matters: Colony-associated microbial communities may affect Trichodesmium activity, but the drivers of community structure across ocean basins are unclear.
• What they did: Metagenomics of Trichodesmium colonies was used to build heterotrophic metagenome-assembled genomes and map subclade-specific genes against Trichodesmium metagenomes from three ocean regions.
• The result: Enriched heterotrophs form a genomically small, slow-growing community that consistently associates with colonies, suggesting deterministic effects of Trichodesmium genotype on epibiont structure.

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