In the deep ocean, translucent sea pigs trundle across the seafloor. Researchers at the University of Tokyo have discovered an unusual bacterium. DNA analysis revealed a minimized genome of just 649,000 bases. Unexpectedly, more than a quarter of this was dedicated to building surface-associated protein groups, including "giant" proteins exceeding 5,000 amino acids in length, possibly for interactions with host tissues or bacterial aggregation (clustering into groups).