High-resolution metatranscriptomics reveals precise temporal succession in coastal microbial communities instead of functional redundancy
Hi everyone,We recently posted a new preprint where we used autonomous drone sampling to perform metatranscriptomic profiling every 2 hours over 72 hours in Daya Bay (China).Instead of the classical view of functional redundancy buffering environmental fluctuations, our results show a highly organized, clock-like succession of microbial activity. We identified six distinct temporal phases with very limited overlap in active gene expression (>90% turnover every ~2 hours). Community composition was a strong predictor of metabolic output, with the strongest coupling observed at the genus level.We also observed that cyanophages appear to actively participate in this temporal coordination, particularly by providing variant proteins during peak photosynthetic periods.The work has implications for how we understand short-term microbial responses and C/N cycling in dynamic coastal environments.Preprint: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.06.22.733315 Feedback and discussion are very welcome!