Microbial sulfur transformations in sediments from Subglacial Lake Whillans
Diverse microbial assemblages inhabit subglacial aquatic environments. While few of these environments have been sampled, data reveal that subglacial organisms gain energy for growth from reduced minerals containing nitrogen, iron, and sulfur. Here we investigate the role of microbially mediated sul...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4237127 2023-05-15T13:49:18+02:00 Microbial sulfur transformations in sediments from Subglacial Lake Whillans Purcell, Alicia M. Mikucki, Jill A. Achberger, Amanda M. Alekhina, Irina A. Barbante, Carlo Christner, Brent C. Ghosh, Dhritiman Michaud, Alexander B. Mitchell, Andrew C. Priscu, John C. Scherer, Reed Skidmore, Mark L. Vick-Majors, Trista J. the WISSARD Science Team 2014-11-19 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4237127 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00594 en eng Frontiers Media S.A. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00594 Copyright © 2014 Purcell, Mikucki, Achberger, Alekhina, Barbante, Christner, Ghosh, Michaud, Mitchell, Priscu, Scherer, Skidmore, Vick-Majors and WISSARD Science Team. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. CC-BY Microbiology Text 2014 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00594 2014-12-07T01:31:42Z Diverse microbial assemblages inhabit subglacial aquatic environments. While few of these environments have been sampled, data reveal that subglacial organisms gain energy for growth from reduced minerals containing nitrogen, iron, and sulfur. Here we investigate the role of microbially mediated sulfur transformations in sediments from Subglacial Lake Whillans (SLW), Antarctica, by examining key genes involved in dissimilatory sulfur oxidation and reduction. The presence of sulfur transformation genes throughout the top 34 cm of SLW sediments changes with depth. SLW surficial sediments were dominated by genes related to known sulfur-oxidizing chemoautotrophs. Sequences encoding the adenosine-5′-phosphosulfate (APS) reductase gene, involved in both dissimilatory sulfate reduction and sulfur oxidation, were present in all samples and clustered into 16 distinct operational taxonomic units. The majority of APS reductase sequences (74%) clustered with known sulfur oxidizers including those within the “Sideroxydans” and Thiobacillus genera. Reverse-acting dissimilatory sulfite reductase (rDSR) and 16S rRNA gene sequences further support dominance of “Sideroxydans” and Thiobacillus phylotypes in the top 2 cm of SLW sediments. The SLW microbial community has the genetic potential for sulfate reduction which is supported by experimentally measured low rates (1.4 pmol cm-3d-1) of biologically mediated sulfate reduction and the presence of APS reductase and DSR gene sequences related to Desulfobacteraceae and Desulfotomaculum. Our results also infer the presence of sulfur oxidation, which can be a significant energetic pathway for chemosynthetic biosynthesis in SLW sediments. The water in SLW ultimately flows into the Ross Sea where intermediates from subglacial sulfur transformations can influence the flux of solutes to the Southern Ocean. Text Antarc* Antarctica Ross Sea Southern Ocean PubMed Central (PMC) Ross Sea Southern Ocean Whillans ENVELOPE(-64.250,-64.250,-84.450,-84.450) Frontiers in Microbiology 5 |
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PubMed Central (PMC) |
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ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Microbiology |
spellingShingle |
Microbiology Purcell, Alicia M. Mikucki, Jill A. Achberger, Amanda M. Alekhina, Irina A. Barbante, Carlo Christner, Brent C. Ghosh, Dhritiman Michaud, Alexander B. Mitchell, Andrew C. Priscu, John C. Scherer, Reed Skidmore, Mark L. Vick-Majors, Trista J. the WISSARD Science Team Microbial sulfur transformations in sediments from Subglacial Lake Whillans |
topic_facet |
Microbiology |
description |
Diverse microbial assemblages inhabit subglacial aquatic environments. While few of these environments have been sampled, data reveal that subglacial organisms gain energy for growth from reduced minerals containing nitrogen, iron, and sulfur. Here we investigate the role of microbially mediated sulfur transformations in sediments from Subglacial Lake Whillans (SLW), Antarctica, by examining key genes involved in dissimilatory sulfur oxidation and reduction. The presence of sulfur transformation genes throughout the top 34 cm of SLW sediments changes with depth. SLW surficial sediments were dominated by genes related to known sulfur-oxidizing chemoautotrophs. Sequences encoding the adenosine-5′-phosphosulfate (APS) reductase gene, involved in both dissimilatory sulfate reduction and sulfur oxidation, were present in all samples and clustered into 16 distinct operational taxonomic units. The majority of APS reductase sequences (74%) clustered with known sulfur oxidizers including those within the “Sideroxydans” and Thiobacillus genera. Reverse-acting dissimilatory sulfite reductase (rDSR) and 16S rRNA gene sequences further support dominance of “Sideroxydans” and Thiobacillus phylotypes in the top 2 cm of SLW sediments. The SLW microbial community has the genetic potential for sulfate reduction which is supported by experimentally measured low rates (1.4 pmol cm-3d-1) of biologically mediated sulfate reduction and the presence of APS reductase and DSR gene sequences related to Desulfobacteraceae and Desulfotomaculum. Our results also infer the presence of sulfur oxidation, which can be a significant energetic pathway for chemosynthetic biosynthesis in SLW sediments. The water in SLW ultimately flows into the Ross Sea where intermediates from subglacial sulfur transformations can influence the flux of solutes to the Southern Ocean. |
format |
Text |
author |
Purcell, Alicia M. Mikucki, Jill A. Achberger, Amanda M. Alekhina, Irina A. Barbante, Carlo Christner, Brent C. Ghosh, Dhritiman Michaud, Alexander B. Mitchell, Andrew C. Priscu, John C. Scherer, Reed Skidmore, Mark L. Vick-Majors, Trista J. the WISSARD Science Team |
author_facet |
Purcell, Alicia M. Mikucki, Jill A. Achberger, Amanda M. Alekhina, Irina A. Barbante, Carlo Christner, Brent C. Ghosh, Dhritiman Michaud, Alexander B. Mitchell, Andrew C. Priscu, John C. Scherer, Reed Skidmore, Mark L. Vick-Majors, Trista J. the WISSARD Science Team |
author_sort |
Purcell, Alicia M. |
title |
Microbial sulfur transformations in sediments from Subglacial Lake Whillans |
title_short |
Microbial sulfur transformations in sediments from Subglacial Lake Whillans |
title_full |
Microbial sulfur transformations in sediments from Subglacial Lake Whillans |
title_fullStr |
Microbial sulfur transformations in sediments from Subglacial Lake Whillans |
title_full_unstemmed |
Microbial sulfur transformations in sediments from Subglacial Lake Whillans |
title_sort |
microbial sulfur transformations in sediments from subglacial lake whillans |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4237127 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00594 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-64.250,-64.250,-84.450,-84.450) |
geographic |
Ross Sea Southern Ocean Whillans |
geographic_facet |
Ross Sea Southern Ocean Whillans |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Ross Sea Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Ross Sea Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00594 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2014 Purcell, Mikucki, Achberger, Alekhina, Barbante, Christner, Ghosh, Michaud, Mitchell, Priscu, Scherer, Skidmore, Vick-Majors and WISSARD Science Team. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00594 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Microbiology |
container_volume |
5 |
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1766251146256580608 |