Biosynthetic capacity, metabolic variety and unusual biology in the CPR and DPANN radiations Cindy J. Castelle 1,2, Christopher T. Brown 1, Karthik Anantharaman 1,5, Alexander J. Probst 1,6, Raven H. Huang3 and Jillian F. Banfield 1,2,4* 1Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. 2Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA, USA. 3Department of Biochemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA. 4Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA. 5Department of Bacteriology, University of WisconsinMadison, Madison, WI, USA. 6Department of Chemistry, Biofilm Center, Group for Aquatic Microbial Ecology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany. *e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract Candidate phyla radiation (CPR) bacteria and DPANN (an acronym of the names of the first included phyla) archaea are massive radiations of organisms that are widely distributed across Earth’s environments, yet we know little about them. Initial indications are that they are consistently distinct from essentially all other bacteria and archaea owing to their small cell and genome sizes, limited metabolic capacities and often episymbiotic associations with other bacteria and archaea. In this Analysis, we investigate their biology and variations in metabolic capacities by analysis of approximately 1,000 genomes reconstructed from several metagenomics-based studies. We find that they are not monolithic in terms of metabolism but rather harbour a diversity of capacities consistent with a range of lifestyles and degrees of dependence on other organisms. Notably, however, certain CPR and DPANN groups seem to have exceedingly minimal biosynthetic capacities, whereas others could potentially be free living.