Omics-Inferred Partitioning and Expression of Diverse Biogeochemical Functions in a Low-O 2 Cyanobacterial Mat Community

Abstract

Cyanobacterial mats are dense communities of microorganisms that contain photosynthetic cyanobacteria along with a host of other bacterial species that play important yet still poorly understood roles in this ecosystem. Although such cyanobacterial mats were critical agents of Earth’s biological and chemical evolution through geological time, little is known about how they function under the low-oxygen conditions that characterized most of their natural history.