The past two decades has witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of microbial genomes retrieved from marine systems^1,2. However, it has remained challenging to translate this marine genomic diversity into biotechnological and biomedical applications^3,4. Here we recovered 43,191 bacterial and archaeal genomes from publicly available marine metagenomes, encompassing a wide range of diversity with 138 distinct phyla, redefining the upper limit of marine bacterial genome size and revealing complex trade-offs between the occurrence of CRISPR–Cas systems and antibiotic resistance genes. In silico bioprospecting of these marine genomes led to the discovery of a novel CRISPR–Cas9 system, ten antimicrobial peptides, and three enzymes that degrade polyethylene terephthalate. In vitro experiments confirmed their effectiveness and efficacy. This work provides evidence that global-scale sequencing initiatives advance our understanding of how microbial diversity has evolved in the oceans and is maintained, and demonstrates how such initiatives can be sustainably exploited to advance biotechnology and biomedicine.

过去二十年，从海洋系统中检索到的微生物基因组数量显着增加^1,2 。然而，将这种海洋基因组多样性转化为生物技术和生物医学应用仍然具有挑战性^3,4 。在这里，我们从公开的海洋宏基因组中恢复了 43,191 个细菌和古细菌基因组，涵盖了 138 个不同门的广泛多样性，重新定义了海洋细菌基因组大小的上限，并揭示了 CRISPR-Cas 系统和抗生素之间复杂的权衡。抗性基因。对这些海洋基因组进行计算机生物勘探，发现了一种新型 CRISPR-Cas9 系统、十种抗菌肽和三种降解聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯的酶。体外实验证实了它们的有效性和功效。这项工作提供了证据，证明全球规模的测序计划增进了我们对海洋中微生物多样性如何进化和维持的理解，并展示了如何可持续地利用这些计划来推进生物技术和生物医学。