Role for urea in nitrification by polar marine Archaea
6 pages, 4 figures Despite the high abundance of Archaea in the global ocean, their metabolism and biogeochemical roles remain largely unresolved. We investigated the population dynamics and metabolic activity of Thaumarchaeota in polar environments, where these microorganisms are particularly abund...
Published in: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
2012
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/72112 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1201914109 |
id |
ftcsic:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/72112 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftcsic:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/72112 2024-02-11T09:55:21+01:00 Role for urea in nitrification by polar marine Archaea Alonso-Sáez, Laura Estrada, Marta Pedrós-Alió, Carlos 2012-10 http://hdl.handle.net/10261/72112 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1201914109 en eng National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1201914109 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 109(44): 17989-17994 (2012) http://hdl.handle.net/10261/72112 doi:10.1073/pnas.1201914109 1091-6490 23027926 none amoA ureC Beaufort Sea Ross Sea Amundsen Sea artículo http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 2012 ftcsic https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1201914109 2024-01-16T09:47:34Z 6 pages, 4 figures Despite the high abundance of Archaea in the global ocean, their metabolism and biogeochemical roles remain largely unresolved. We investigated the population dynamics and metabolic activity of Thaumarchaeota in polar environments, where these microorganisms are particularly abundant and exhibit seasonal growth. Thaumarchaeota were more abundant in deep Arctic and Antarctic waters and grew throughout the winter at surface and deeper Arctic halocline waters. However, in situ single-cell activity measurements revealed a low activity of this group in the uptake of both leucine and bicarbonate (<5% Thaumarchaeota cells active), which is inconsistent with known heterotrophic and autotrophic thaumarchaeal lifestyles. These results suggested the existence of alternative sources of carbon and energy. Our analysis of an environmental metagenome from the Arctic winter revealed that Thaumarchaeota had pathways for ammonia oxidation and, unexpectedly, an abundance of genes involved in urea transport and degradation. Quantitative PCR analysis confirmed that most polar Thaumarchaeota had the potential to oxidize ammonia, and a large fraction of them had urease genes, enabling the use of urea to fuel nitrification. Thaumarchaeota from Arctic deep waters had a higher abundance of urease genes than those near the surface suggesting genetic differences between closely related archaeal populations. In situ measurements of urea uptake and concentration in Arctic waters showed that small-sized prokaryotes incorporated the carbon from urea, and the availability of urea was often higher than that of ammonium. Therefore, the degradation of urea may be a relevant pathway for Thaumarchaeota and other microorganisms exposed to the low-energy conditions of dark polar waters We thank the captains and crew of the icebreakers Oden and CCGS Amundsen and the Swedish Research Polar secretariat for logistic support; Dan Nguyen, Roxane Maranger, and other members of the Circumpolar Flaw Lead (CFL) cruise for collecting ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Beaufort Sea Ross Sea Digital.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) Amundsen Sea Antarctic Arctic Ross Sea Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 44 17989 17994 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Digital.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) |
op_collection_id |
ftcsic |
language |
English |
topic |
amoA ureC Beaufort Sea Ross Sea Amundsen Sea |
spellingShingle |
amoA ureC Beaufort Sea Ross Sea Amundsen Sea Alonso-Sáez, Laura Estrada, Marta Pedrós-Alió, Carlos Role for urea in nitrification by polar marine Archaea |
topic_facet |
amoA ureC Beaufort Sea Ross Sea Amundsen Sea |
description |
6 pages, 4 figures Despite the high abundance of Archaea in the global ocean, their metabolism and biogeochemical roles remain largely unresolved. We investigated the population dynamics and metabolic activity of Thaumarchaeota in polar environments, where these microorganisms are particularly abundant and exhibit seasonal growth. Thaumarchaeota were more abundant in deep Arctic and Antarctic waters and grew throughout the winter at surface and deeper Arctic halocline waters. However, in situ single-cell activity measurements revealed a low activity of this group in the uptake of both leucine and bicarbonate (<5% Thaumarchaeota cells active), which is inconsistent with known heterotrophic and autotrophic thaumarchaeal lifestyles. These results suggested the existence of alternative sources of carbon and energy. Our analysis of an environmental metagenome from the Arctic winter revealed that Thaumarchaeota had pathways for ammonia oxidation and, unexpectedly, an abundance of genes involved in urea transport and degradation. Quantitative PCR analysis confirmed that most polar Thaumarchaeota had the potential to oxidize ammonia, and a large fraction of them had urease genes, enabling the use of urea to fuel nitrification. Thaumarchaeota from Arctic deep waters had a higher abundance of urease genes than those near the surface suggesting genetic differences between closely related archaeal populations. In situ measurements of urea uptake and concentration in Arctic waters showed that small-sized prokaryotes incorporated the carbon from urea, and the availability of urea was often higher than that of ammonium. Therefore, the degradation of urea may be a relevant pathway for Thaumarchaeota and other microorganisms exposed to the low-energy conditions of dark polar waters We thank the captains and crew of the icebreakers Oden and CCGS Amundsen and the Swedish Research Polar secretariat for logistic support; Dan Nguyen, Roxane Maranger, and other members of the Circumpolar Flaw Lead (CFL) cruise for collecting ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Alonso-Sáez, Laura Estrada, Marta Pedrós-Alió, Carlos |
author_facet |
Alonso-Sáez, Laura Estrada, Marta Pedrós-Alió, Carlos |
author_sort |
Alonso-Sáez, Laura |
title |
Role for urea in nitrification by polar marine Archaea |
title_short |
Role for urea in nitrification by polar marine Archaea |
title_full |
Role for urea in nitrification by polar marine Archaea |
title_fullStr |
Role for urea in nitrification by polar marine Archaea |
title_full_unstemmed |
Role for urea in nitrification by polar marine Archaea |
title_sort |
role for urea in nitrification by polar marine archaea |
publisher |
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/72112 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1201914109 |
geographic |
Amundsen Sea Antarctic Arctic Ross Sea |
geographic_facet |
Amundsen Sea Antarctic Arctic Ross Sea |
genre |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Beaufort Sea Ross Sea |
genre_facet |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Beaufort Sea Ross Sea |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1201914109 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 109(44): 17989-17994 (2012) http://hdl.handle.net/10261/72112 doi:10.1073/pnas.1201914109 1091-6490 23027926 |
op_rights |
none |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1201914109 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
container_volume |
109 |
container_issue |
44 |
container_start_page |
17989 |
op_container_end_page |
17994 |
_version_ |
1790595077361369088 |