Explorative Meta-Analysis of 417 Extant Archaeal Genomes to Predict Their Contribution to the Total Microbiome Functionality

Revealing the relationship between taxonomy and function in microbiomes is critical to discover their contribution to ecosystem functioning. However, while the relationship between taxonomic and functional diversity in bacteria and fungi is known, this is not the case for archaea. Here, we used a meta-analysis of 417 completely annotated extant and taxonomically unique archaeal genomes to predict the extent of microbiome functionality on Earth contained within archaeal genomes using accumulation curves of all known level 3 functions of KEGG Orthology. We found that intergenome redundancy as functions present in multiple genomes was inversely related to intragenome redundancy as multiple copies of a gene in one genome, implying the tradeoff between additional copies of functionally important genes or a higher number of different genes. A logarithmic model described the relationship between functional diversity and species richness better than both the unsaturated and the saturated model, which suggests a limited total number of archaeal functions in contrast to the sheer unlimited potential of bacteria and fungi. Using the global archaeal species richness estimate of 13,159, the logarithmic model predicted 4164.1 +/- 2.9 KEGG level 3 functions. The non-parametric bootstrap estimate yielded a lower bound of 2994 +/- 57 KEGG level 3 functions. Our approach not only highlighted similarities in functional redundancy but also the difference in functional potential of archaea compared to other domains of life.

Automated summary

The study reveals that the functional potential of archaea is limited compared to bacteria and fungi. Analyzing the relationship between functional diversity and species richness among different archaeal genomes, the research highlights the unique functional characteristics of archaeal genomes in microbial functioning.