Metatranscriptome of marine bacterioplankton during winter time in the North Sea assessed by total RNA sequencing

Marine metatranscriptome data was generated as part of a study investigating the bacterioplankton communities towards the end of a diatom-dominated spring phytoplankton bloom. This genomic resource article reports a metatranscriptomic dataset from amidst the winter time prior to the occurrence of the spring diatom bloom. Up to 58% of all sequences could be assigned to predicted genes. Taxonomic analysis based on expressed 16S ribosomal RNA genes identified Alphaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria as the most active community members. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.