Diversity of Archaea in Marine Sediments from Skan Bay, Alaska, Including Cultivated Methanogens, and Description of Methanogenium boonei sp. nov
ABSTRACT Methanogenesis in cold marine sediments is a globally important process leading to methane hydrate deposits, cold seeps, physical instability of sediment, and atmospheric methane emissions. We employed a multidisciplinary approach that combined culture-dependent and -independent analyses wi...
| Published in: | Applied and Environmental Microbiology |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Society for Microbiology
2007
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/aem.01154-06 https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/AEM.01154-06 |
| Summary: | ABSTRACT Methanogenesis in cold marine sediments is a globally important process leading to methane hydrate deposits, cold seeps, physical instability of sediment, and atmospheric methane emissions. We employed a multidisciplinary approach that combined culture-dependent and -independent analyses with geochemical measurements in the sediments of Skan Bay, Alaska (53°N, 167°W), to investigate methanogenesis there. Cultivation-independent analyses of the archaeal community revealed that uncultivated microbes of the kingdoms Euryarchaeota and Crenarchaeota are present at Skan Bay and that methanogens constituted a small proportion of the archaeal community. Methanogens were cultivated from depths of 0 to 60 cm in the sediments, and several strains related to the orders Methanomicrobiales and Methanosarcinales were isolated. Isolates were psychrotolerant marine-adapted strains and included an aceticlastic methanogen, strain AK-6, as well as three strains of CO 2 -reducing methanogens: AK-3, AK7, and AK-8. The phylogenetic positions and physiological characteristics of these strains are described. We propose a new species, Methanogenium boonei , with strain AK-7 as the type strain. |
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