About the Authors

Lucie Zinger

Affiliation Microbial Habitat Group, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany

Linda A. Amaral-Zettler

Affiliation Josephine Bay Paul Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States of America

Jed A. Fuhrman

Affiliation Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

M. Claire Horner-Devine

Affiliation School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Susan M. Huse

Affiliation Josephine Bay Paul Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States of America

David B. Mark Welch

Affiliation Josephine Bay Paul Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States of America

Jennifer B. H. Martiny

Affiliation Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America

Mitchell Sogin

Affiliation Josephine Bay Paul Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States of America

Antje Boetius

Affiliations Microbial Habitat Group, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany, HGF MPG Joint Research Group on Deep Sea Ecology and Technology, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

Alban Ramette

aramette@mpi-bremen.de

Affiliations Microbial Habitat Group, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany, HGF MPG Joint Research Group on Deep Sea Ecology and Technology, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: LZ AB AR. Performed the experiments: LZ LAAZ SMH DBMW AR. Analyzed the data: LZ LAAZ SMH DBMW AR. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MS. Wrote the paper: LZ LAAZ JAF MCHD JBHM MS AB AR.