Estimate of the sequenced proportion of the global prokaryotic genome

Background Sequencing prokaryotic genomes has revolutionized our understanding of the many roles played by microorganisms. However, the cell and taxon proportions of genome-sequenced bacteria or archaea on earth remain unknown. This study aimed to explore this basic question using large-scale alignment between the sequences released by the Earth Microbiome Project and 155,810 prokaryotic genomes from public databases. Results Our results showed...