So happy this is finally out and congratulations to this awesome team. I have been obsessed with this figure for over a year now and for very good reasons as these results bear implications that promise to fundamentally change the microbiome industry and associated therapeutic efforts that rely on microbes. By comparing well over 1 million microbial genomes from cultured and uncultured organisms we found that: ✨ over 95% of the sequenced species of cultivated microbes cannot be recovered from any of the 40K metagenomic samples across all habitats on the planet we have analyzed (orange part of the venn diagram). ✨ this suggests that the vast majority of cultivated microbial species are not sufficiently abundant in any environment to be captured through metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs). ✨ with over 1.5 million genomes of both cultivated and uncultivated microbes, there remains an enormous diversity of microbial species that we have yet to genomically characterize (grey portion of the venn diagram). This vast diversity offers a glimpse into the rare microbial biosphere of our planet. Its relative presence across ecosystems is a great indicator of each habitat’s resilience and ability to recover from environmental changes. There is much more to explore and discuss on this topic in future work. ✨ we are now working on a hypothesis to explain the very low abundance of cultivated organisms in natural habitats and through that pioneer novel approaches for stable and robust microbial therapeutic interventions. ✨ beyond these incredibly exciting implications, what all this means for all microbial ecologists out there? Based on this ground work, JGI will soon be able to provide a way to let its users know if any newly identified species is part of this rare biosphere, or completely novel species and if in rare biosphere, where else was it seen before. More on this to follow soon!

I remain optimistic that, within my lifetime, there will be a British government honorable enough to acknowledge the heinous cultural crimes committed by their ancestors against the world’s cultural riches and monuments of ethnic heritage, and to approve the return of the stolen treasures to their rightful places of origin. What a powerful lesson would that be for the world on ethics in politics. Perhaps even the turn of a page in humanity associating for the first time ethos and morality with power! @britishmuseum @bringthemback @acropolismuseum

Looking fwd to the next GSC meeting in Tucson, Arizona and the excellent speaker lineup!

Great to have you at the @jgi @JuniaSchultz. One of the reasons i am especially proud to work here is the opportunities that the @jgi and @LBNLBioSci offers for training of early career scientists from anywhere around the world! Welcome and looking fwd to work with you!

Join us for the #2024Bio3 conference in Athens, September 1-5, 2024. Building on the momentum of last year's success, gathering again an impressive lineup of thought leaders, innovators, and pioneers in the interplay of Precision Medicine, Microbiome Innovations, and Artificial Intelligence, highlighting their transformative impact on Biotechnology. bio3-2024.bioinnovation.gr/h…

It’s great to be part of this issue and among an amazing collection of dbases! And what a great honor to see our work selected as the breakthrough article of the issue! Thank you for the fantastic work in putting yet another dbase issue together @DanielRigden – at Berkeley, CA

Very excited to see that our publication describing the Novel Metagenome Protein Families (NMPFamsDB) is selected among all the 180 papers across biology and neighboring disciplines featured in the 2024 Nucleic Acids Research Database issue, as the Breakthrough article of the Issue. @jgi @g_pavlopoulos, @Vagelis1990, @sokrypton academic.oup.com/nar/advance…

Largest Plasmid genome resource #IMG_PR released from the @jgi. Applying @apcamargo_'s #geNomad across all @IMG_DATA almost 700,000 contigs were identified as Plasmid sequences. Great team work from @apcamargo_ @simroux_virus, Lee Call and @jgi and special thanks to the plasmid experts from the user community helping us improve this resource. Publication available at academic.oup.com/nar/advance…

Anazing work by Raquel Peixoto on customized medicine on corals and #OneHealth at the first joint KAUST-SFDA international conference on Trends in Microbiome and Digital One Health at @CBRC_KAUST @peixotors

Thank you @Rosado_AS for the excellent organization and hosting of the first joint KAUST-SFDA international conference on Trends in Microbiome and Digital One Health. cbrcconferences.kaust.edu.sa… @CBRC_KAUST – at Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia