The marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus is the smallest and most abundant
photosynthetic organism on Earth. In this Review, we summarize our understanding of the …

Because of recent advances in omics methodologies, knowledge of chlorophototrophy (ie,
chlorophyll-based phototrophy) in bacteria has rapidly increased. Chlorophototrophs …

Pangenomes offer detailed characterizations of core and accessory genes found in a set of
closely related microbial genomes, generally by clustering genes based on sequence …

Horizontal transfer, gene loss, and duplication result in dynamic bacterial genomes shaped
by a complex mixture of different modes of evolution. Closely related strains can differ in the …

Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus are the two most abundant and widespread
phytoplankton in the global ocean. To better understand the factors controlling their …

Hydrocarbons are ubiquitous in the ocean, where alkanes such as pentadecane and
heptadecane can be found even in waters minimally polluted with crude oil. Populations of …

Unicellular cyanobacteria constitute a substantial, ecologically important part of freshwater
and marine microflora. Solitary, elongated cyanobacterial cells without apparent slime …

Metabolism mediates the flow of matter and energy through the biosphere. We examined
how metabolic evolution shapes ecosystems by reconstructing it in the globally abundant …

Recent advances in single-cell genomic and metagenomic techniques have facilitated the
discovery of numerous previously unknown, deep branches of the tree of life that lack …

Horizontal gene transfer accelerates microbial evolution. The marine picocyanobacterium
Prochlorococcus exhibits high genomic plasticity, yet the underlying mechanisms are …