Over 20% of all living mammals are bats (order Chiroptera). Bats possess extraordinary adaptations including powered flight, laryngeal echolocation and a unique immune system that enables them to tolerate a diversity of viral infections without presenting clinical disease symptoms. They occupy multiple trophic niches and environments globally. Significant physiological and ecological diversity occurs across the order. Bats als...

Comprising more than 1,400 species, bats possess adaptations unique among mammals including powered flight, unexpected longevity, and extraordinary immunity. Some of the molecular mechanisms underlying these unique adaptations includes DNA repair, metabolism and immunity. However, analyses have been limited to a few divergent lineages, reducing the scope of inferences on gene family evolution across the Order Chiroptera. We co...

Age‐related telomere shortening is considered a hallmark of the ageing process. However, a recent cross‐sectional ageing study of relative telomere length (rTL) in bats failed to detect a relationship between rTL and age in the long‐lived genus Myotis ( M. myotis and M. bechsteinii ), suggesting some other factors are responsible for driving telomere dynamics in these species. Here, we test if longitudinal rTL data show signat...

Summary Gammaproteobacterial Reinekea spp. were detected during North Sea spring algae blooms in the years 2009‐2012, with relative abundances of up to 16% in the bacterioplankton. Here, we explore the ecophysiology of ‘R. forsetii' strain Hel1_31_D35 that was isolated during the 2010 spring bloom using (i) its manually annotated, high‐quality closed genome, (ii) re‐analysis of in situ data from the 2009–2012 blooms and (iii)...

Summary Marine Bacteroidetes have pronounced capabilities of degrading high molecular weight organic matter such as proteins and polysaccharides. Previously we reported on 76 Bacteroidetes ‐affiliated fosmids from the North Atlantic Ocean's boreal polar and oligotrophic subtropical provinces. Here, we report on the analysis of further 174 fosmids from the same libraries. The combined, re‐assembled dataset (226 contigs; 8.8 Mbp...

Summary The roles of individual bacterioplankton species in the re‐mineralization of algal biomass are poorly understood. Evidence from molecular data had indicated that a spring diatom bloom in the G erman B ight of the N orth S ea in 2009 was followed by a rapid succession of uncultivated bacterioplankton species, including members of the genera U lvibacter , F ormosa , P olaribacter (class F lavobacteria ) and R einekea (cl...

Summary The gill chamber of deep‐sea hydrothermal vent shrimp R imicaris exoculata hosts a dense community of epibiotic bacteria dominated by filamentous E psilonproteobacteria and G ammaproteobacteria . Using metagenomics on shrimp from the R ainbow hydrothermal vent field, we showed that both epibiont groups have the potential to grow autotrophically and oxidize reduced sulfur compounds or hydrogen with oxygen or nitrate. Fo...

Summary Euryarchaea from the genus H alorhabdus have been found in hypersaline habitats worldwide, yet are represented by only two isolates: H alorhabdus utahensis AX ‐2 T from the shallow G reat S alt L ake of U tah, and H alorhabdus tiamatea SARL 4 B T from the S haban deep‐sea hypersaline anoxic lake ( DHAL ) in the R ed S ea. We sequenced the H . tiamatea genome to elucidate its niche adaptations. Among sequenced archaea,...

Summary So far only little is known about the microbial ecology of Mediterranean deep‐sea hypersaline anoxic lakes (DHALs). These brine lakes were formed by evaporite dissolution/brine seeps and are important model environments to provide insights into possible metabolisms and distributions of microorganisms on the early Earth. Our study on the Lake Thetis , a new thalassohaline DHAL located South‐East of the Medriff Corridor,...

Summary Bacteroidetes are widespread in marine systems where they play a crucial role in organic matter degradation. Whole genome analysis of several strains has revealed a broad glycolytic and proteolytic potential. In this study, we used a targeted metagenomic approach to investigate the degradation capabilities of distinct Bacteroidetes clades from two contrasting regions of the North Atlantic Ocean, the Polar Biome (BPLR)...

Summary Desulfotalea psychrophila is a marine sulfate‐reducing δ‐proteobacterium that is able to grow at in situ temperatures below 0°C. As abundant members of the microbial community in permanently cold marine sediments, D. psychrophila ‐like bacteria contribute to the global cycles of carbon and sulfur. Here, we describe the genome sequence of D. psychrophila strain LSv54, which consists of a 3 523 383 bp circular chromosome...