Marine picoplankton metagenomes and MAGs from eleven vertical profiles obtained by the Malaspina Expedition.

The Ocean microbiome has a crucial role in Earth's biogeochemical cycles. During the last decade, global cruises such as Tara Oceans and the Malaspina Expedition have expanded our understanding of the diversity and genetic repertoire of marine microbes. Nevertheless, there are still knowledge gaps regarding their diversity patterns throughout depth gradients ranging from the surface to the deep ocean. Here we present a dataset of 76 microbial metagenomes (MProfile) of the picoplankton size fraction (0.2-3.0 µm) collected in 11 vertical profiles covering contrasting ocean regions sampled during the Malaspina Expedition circumnavigation (7 depths, from surface to 4,000 m deep). The MProfile dataset produced 1.66 Tbp of raw DNA sequences from which we derived: 17.4 million genes clustered at 95% sequence similarity (M-GeneDB-VP), 2,672 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) of Archaea and Bacteria (Malaspina-VP-MAGs), and over 100,000 viral genomic sequences. This dataset will be a valuable resource for exploring the functional and taxonomic connectivity between the photic and bathypelagic tropical and sub-tropical ocean, while increasing our general knowledge of the Ocean microbiome.

"The Good, the Bad and the Double-Sword" Effects of Microplastics and Their Organic Additives in Marine Bacteria.

Little is known about the direct effects of microplastics (MPs) and their organic additives on marine bacteria, considering their role in the nutrient cycles, e.g., N-cycles through the N2-fixation, or in the microbial food web. To fill this gap of knowledge, we exposed marine bacteria, specifically diazotrophs, to pure MPs which differ in physical properties (e.g., density, hydrophobicity, and/or size), namely, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride and polystyrene, and to their most abundant associated organic additives (e.g., fluoranthene, 1,2,5,6,9,10-hexabromocyclododecane and dioctyl-phthalate). Growth, protein overproduction, direct physical interactions between MPs and bacteria, phosphorus acquisition mechanisms and/or N2-fixation rates were evaluated. Cyanobacteria were positively affected by environmental and high concentrations of MPs, as opposed to heterotrophic strains, that were only positively affected with high concentrations of ~120 µm-size MPs (detecting the overproduction of proteins related to plastic degradation and C-transport), and negatively affected by 1 µm-size PS beads. Generally, the organic additives had a deleterious effect in both autotrophic and heterotrophic bacteria and the magnitude of the effect is suggested to be dependent on bacterial size. Our results show species-specific responses of the autotrophic and heterotrophic bacteria tested and the responses (beneficial: the "good," deleterious: the "bad" and/or both: the "double-sword") were dependent on the type and concentration of MPs and additives. This suggests the need to determine the threshold levels of MPs and additives concentrations starting from which significant effects can be observed for key microbial populations in marine systems, and these data are necessary for effective environmental quality control management.