{
  "abstract": "Deep soils represent one of Earth’s largest yet most enigmatic microbial habitats, where survival strategies under extreme oligotrophy remain poorly understood. Here, we report the Aridivitia group, a globally distributed bacterial lineage enriched in oligotrophic soils and thriving down to 22 m depth across sites in the United States and China. Despite its genome reduction (average size ~2.9 Mb), Aridivitia exhibits high metabolic flexibility in utilizing diverse carbon and energy sources. Cellular, genomic, and metatranscriptomic evidence, including small cell and genome sizes, host-associated metabolism, and the active expression of attachment- and attack-associated surface structures such as Tad pili and pore-forming toxins, indicate a predatory lifestyle in Aridivitia. Ancestral genome reconstruction reveals that Aridivitia originated as free-living mixotrophs, but subsequently lost the ability to fix carbon as they evolved a predatory lifestyle. Collectively, Aridivitia exemplifies a unique evolutionary strategy that reconciles genome reduction with functional versatility, expanding our understanding of microbial adaptation and evolution at the energetic limits of life.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 10,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Xiaonan Wan"
    },
    {
      "name": "Wenlu Feng"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yang Zhang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tom A. Williams",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1072-0223"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gergely J. Szöllősi",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-8556-845X"
    },
    {
      "name": "Hongyu Dang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xuejun Yan",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6427-0419"
    },
    {
      "name": "James M. Tiedje",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-8992-6218"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jizhong Zhou",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2014-0564"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xun Qian",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0102-535X"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4dgjx0c9y7cz6.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1038/s41467-026-78342-x",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "4dgjx0c9y7cz6",
  "issns": [
    "2041-1723"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78342-x",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2303|Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7221849256",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78342-x_reference.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-14",
  "publisher": "Springer Science and Business Media LLC",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4dgjx0c9y7cz6.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:38Z",
      "native_id": "10.1038/s41467-026-78342-x",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78342-x"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:2303|Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology",
      "subfield": "ecology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Genome-reduced Aridivitia evolved predation to thrive in Earth’s oligotrophic depths",
  "title_text": "Genome-reduced Aridivitia evolved predation to thrive in Earth’s oligotrophic depths",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:38Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4dgjx0c9y7cz6",
  "venue": "Nature Communications",
  "versions": []
}