Abstract Our view of genome size in Archaea and Bacteria has remained skewed as the data used to paint its picture has been dominated by genomes of microorganisms that can be cultivated under laboratory settings. However, the continuous effort to catalog the genetic make-up of Earth’s microbiomes specifically propelled by recent extensive work on uncultivated microorganisms, provides a unique opportunity to revise our perspective on genome size distribution. Capitalizing on a recently released extensive catalog of tens of thousands of metagenome-assembled genomes, we provide a comprehensive overview of genome size distributions. We observe that the known phylogenetic diversity of environmental microorganisms possesses significantly smaller genomes than the collection of laboratory isolated microorganisms. Aquatic microorganisms average 3.1 Mb, host-associated microbial genomes average 3.0 Mb, terrestrial microorganism average 3.7 Mb and isolated microorganisms average 4.3 Mb. While the environment where the microorganisms live can certainly be linked to genome size, in some cases, evolutionary phylogenetic history can be a stronger predictor. Moreover, ecological strategies such as auxotrophies have a direct impact on genome size. To better understand the ecological drivers of genome size, we expand on the known and the overlooked factors that influence genome size in different environments, phylogenetic groups and trophic strategies.

A genomic perspective across Earth’s microbiomes reveals that genome size in Archaea and Bacteria is linked to ecosystem type and trophic strategy