Research progress on Planctomycetes’ diversity and ecological function in marine environments

Abstract:

Planctomycetes, an independent bacterial phylum, is a cluster of important environmental microorganisms since occupying unique cell structure and genomic composition. Interestingly, Planctomycetes has a variety of ecological functions in the marine environments, such as participations in the ocean carbon cycle, anammox process, mineral encrustation, and algal bloom, and has become a hotspot of international research of marine microorganisms. However, there is no domestic comprehensive report on such field. Here we reviewed the current status of diversity and ecological function studies on marine Planctomycetes based on recent and important literatures. Finally, we also proposed some future focuses of such field combined with our own work.