Scientists have taken a decisive step forward in uncovering the planet's microbial diversity. They report the release of 1,003 phylogenetically diverse bacterial and archaeal reference genomes -- the single largest release to date. The researchers are interested in learning more about this biodiversity because microbes play important roles in regulating Earth's biogeochemical cycles and uncovering gene functions and metabolic pathways has wide applications.

Source: Uncovered: 1,000 new microbial genomes