About the Authors

Douglas B Rusch

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: DRusch@venterinstitute.org

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Aaron L Halpern

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Granger Sutton

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Karla B Heidelberg

Affiliations J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America , Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Avalon, California, United States of America

Shannon Williamson

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Shibu Yooseph

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Dongying Wu

Affiliations J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America , Genome Center, University of California Davis, Davis, California, United States of America

Jonathan A Eisen

Affiliations J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America , Genome Center, University of California Davis, Davis, California, United States of America

Jeff M Hoffman

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Karin Remington

Affiliations J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America , Your Genome, Your World, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Karen Beeson

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Bao Tran

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Hamilton Smith

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Holly Baden-Tillson

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Clare Stewart

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Joyce Thorpe

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Jason Freeman

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Cynthia Andrews-Pfannkoch

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Joseph E Venter

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Kelvin Li

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Saul Kravitz

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

John F Heidelberg

Affiliations J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America , Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Avalon, California, United States of America

Terry Utterback

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Yu-Hui Rogers

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Luisa I Falcón

Affiliation Departmento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

Valeria Souza

Affiliation Departmento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

Germán Bonilla-Rosso

Affiliation Departmento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

Luis E Eguiarte

Affiliation Departmento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

David M Karl

Affiliation Department of Oceanography, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America

Shubha Sathyendranath

Affiliation Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

Trevor Platt

Affiliation Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

Eldredge Bermingham

Affiliation Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancon, Republic of Panama

Victor Gallardo

Affiliation Departamento de Oceanografía, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile

Giselle Tamayo-Castillo

Affiliation Escuela de Química, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Pedro, Costa Rica

Michael R Ferrari

Affiliation Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States of America

Robert L Strausberg

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Kenneth Nealson

Affiliations J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America , Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angles, California, United States of America

Robert Friedman

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Marvin Frazier

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

J. Craig Venter

Affiliation J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

DBR, ALH, KB, HS, CAP, JFH, MF, and JCV conceived and designed the experiments. DBR, ALH, JMH, KB, BT, HBT, CS, JT, JF, CAP, and JCV performed the experiments. DBR, ALH, GS, KBH, SW, DW, JAE, KR, JEV, TU, YHR, MRF, KN, and RF analyzed the data. DBR, ALH, GS, KBH, SY, JMH, KR, KB, BT, HS, HBT, CS, JT, JF, CAP, KL, SK, JFH, TU, YHR, LIF, VS, GBR, LEE, DMK, SS, TP, EB, VG, GTC, MRF, RLS, MF, and JCV contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools. DBR, ALH, GS, KBH, SW, SY, JAE, RLS, KN, RF, MF, and JCV wrote the paper.