The Daya Bay metagenomic and metatranscriptomic dataset

Planktonic microbial and viral communities are fundamental drivers of biogeochemical cycling and energy flow in marine ecosystems. These communities display substantial variability in their composition at daily to hourly scales, which can’t be captured by conventional low-frequency monthly or weekly sampling. To reveal the high-resolution dynamics, we performed an hourly time-series sampling of planktonic microorganisms and viruses in subtropical Daya Bay. Seawater samples were collected at two-hour intervals over three days and subjected to metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing for the cellular fraction and viromic sequencing for the viral fraction. This approach enabled us to capture fine-scale temporal variations in the genomic composition and transcriptional activities of microbial and viral communities. The resulting comprehensive dataset provides a valuable resource for investigating the metabolic potentials and dynamic interactions within natural planktonic microbial-viral assemblages in subtropical bay ecosystems, offering insights into their ecological roles that are inaccessible through lower-resolution sampling.

浮游微生物与病毒群落是海洋生态系统生物地球化学循环与能量流动的核心驱动者。这类群落在日至小时级的时间尺度上展现出显著的组成异质性，而传统低频的月度或周度采样无法捕捉这一动态特征。为揭示该高分辨率的时间动态变化，我们在亚热带大亚湾开展了浮游微生物与病毒的逐小时时序采样。我们以两小时间隔连续三日采集海水样本，并分别针对细胞组分开展宏基因组（metagenomic）与宏转录组（metatranscriptomic）测序，针对病毒组分开展病毒组（viromic）测序。该实验方案使我们得以捕捉微生物与病毒群落的基因组组成及转录活性的精细时间尺度变化。本研究获得的综合数据集，为探究亚热带海湾生态系统中自然浮游微生物-病毒群落的代谢潜力与动态互作关系提供了宝贵资源，同时也为揭示低分辨率采样无法获取的这类群落的生态功能提供了全新认知。