{
  "abstract": "Ecosystems are shaped by communities of microorganisms whose niches and impacts depend on functional profiles influenced by gene gains and losses. Culture-based experiments demonstrate that mobile genetic elements (MGEs) can mediate gene flux, but quantitative understanding of these dynamics in natural systems remains limited. Here we develop and apply a systematic, meta-omic framework to investigate MGEs in a complex natural system using an 8-year soil time series collected at Stordalen Mire, in Sweden's thawing permafrost margin. In this climate-critical peatland, we identify ~2.1 million MGE recombinases across 89 microbial phyla and assess ecological distributions, affected functions, past mobility and current activity. This revealed an active mobilome that shapes natural genetic diversity via differential impacts on major phyla and affects a wide range of functions, including metabolic genes involved in carbon flux and nutrient cycling. These findings and this analytic framework suggest avenues towards a better understanding of MGE diversity, activity, mobility and impacts across ecosystems.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Center of Microbiome Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA",
    "Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA",
    "Division of Intramural Research, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA",
    "Centre for Microbiome Research, School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Translational Research Institute, Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia",
    "Centro Oceanográfico de Málaga (IEO-CSIC), Malaga, Spain",
    "Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA",
    "Biophysics Graduate Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA",
    "Cluster of Excellence Balance of the Microverse, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany",
    "Institute of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Aquatic Geomicrobiology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany",
    "Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA",
    "State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment, and Resources, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China",
    "Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland Australia",
    "Department of Earth Sciences and Earth Systems Research Center, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH USA",
    "Department of Earth Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH USA",
    "Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ USA",
    "Department of Environmental Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ USA",
    "Department of Geological Sciences and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden",
    "Department of Geological Sciences, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden",
    "Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH USA",
    "Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA USA",
    "Department of Environmental Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA",
    "Department of Earth Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA",
    "Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA",
    "Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia",
    "Department of Earth Sciences and Earth Systems Research Center, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA",
    "Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA",
    "Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA",
    "Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, Université Paris Sciences & Lettres, Paris, France",
    "Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA",
    "Biophysics Graduate Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. sullivan.948@osu.edu",
    "Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. sullivan.948@osu.edu",
    "Center of Microbiome Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. sullivan.948@osu.edu",
    "Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. sullivan.948@osu.edu",
    "Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. sullivan.948@osu.edu",
    "DOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA. sroux@lbl.gov",
    "Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA. scb126@case.edu"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 40,
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      "name": "Aminata Fofana"
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      "name": "Dylan Cronin"
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      "name": "Darya Anderson",
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      "name": "Kathryn Ann Bennett",
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      "name": "Sky Dominguez",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-5719-0525"
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      "name": "M. F. Fahnestock",
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      "name": "Moira Hough",
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      "name": "Joachim Jansen",
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      "name": "Rhiannon Mondav",
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      "name": "Apryl Perry",
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      "orcid": "0000-0001-5008-1476"
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      "name": "R. K. Varner",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3571-6629"
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    {
      "name": "EMERGE Coordinators"
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      "name": "Patrick Crill",
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      "name": "Jessica G. Ernakovich",
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      "name": "Mike Ibba"
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      "name": "Malak Tfaily",
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      "name": "R. K. Varner",
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      "name": "Ahmed A. Zayed",
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      "name": "Ben J. Woodcroft",
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      "name": "Gene W. Tyson",
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      "name": "Virginia I. Rich",
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      "name": "Matthew B. Sullivan",
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      "name": "Simon Roux",
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  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8mgwvvy10m4rq.bib",
  "cited_by": 9,
  "doi": "10.1038/s41564-026-02391-7",
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  "id": "8mgwvvy10m4rq",
  "issns": [
    "2058-5276"
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  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-026-02391-7",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2303|Bacteriophages and microbial interactions"
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      "openalex",
      "2406|Bacteriophages and microbial interactions"
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  "openalex": "W7166508196",
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": "PMC13323075",
  "pmid": "42373820",
  "published": "2026-06-29",
  "publisher": "Nature Portfolio",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8mgwvvy10m4rq.ris",
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    {
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      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-026-02391-7"
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  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:2303|Bacteriophages and microbial interactions",
      "subfield": "ecology"
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    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:2406|Bacteriophages and microbial interactions",
      "subfield": "microbiology"
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  ],
  "title": "Mobile genetic elements shape microbial diversity and functions in thawing permafrost soils",
  "title_text": "Mobile genetic elements shape microbial diversity and functions in thawing permafrost soils",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-09T13:21:11Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8mgwvvy10m4rq",
  "venue": "Nature Microbiology",
  "versions": []
}