Eukaryotic microbes, or protists, are key drivers of marine ecosystems, with roles ranging from primary producers (phytoplankton) to consumers (heterotrophs or mixotrophs). As with their bacteria and archaea, many protists are difficult or impossible to culture. This has limited our ability to directly interrogate their biology in the laboratory and has led us to underestimate their diversity across marine ecosystems. Molecular and genomic approaches, particularly those applied to whole, mixed communities (e.