The Qaidam Basin Microbiome and Virome Catalogue

The Qaidam Basin in the northern Tibetan Plateau is one of the driest and highest deserts on Earth. The extreme conditions of the Qaidam Basin (e.g., hyperaridity, coldness, high saline levels, and high UV radiation), along with widespread evaporites (e.g., sulfates and chlorides) and Mars-like landforms (e.g., gullies, yardangs, playas, dunes, and polygons), establish it as an exemplary and unique terrestrial Mars analogue site. The Qaidam Basin Microbiome and Virome Catalogue contains 1,773 bacterial and archaeal metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), 2,060 viral genomes, and 12,448 viral scaffolds identified from 58 desert soil metagenomes. The metagenomic data have been deposited in NCBI bioproject PRJNA1213342 and PRJNA727938.