Geochemical transition zone powering microbial growth in subsurface sediments
No other environment hosts as many microbial cells as the marine sedimentary biosphere. While the majority of these cells are expected to be alive, they are speculated to be persisting in a state of maintenance without net growth due to extreme starvation. Here, we report evidence for in situ growth...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7768721 2023-05-15T15:09:49+02:00 Geochemical transition zone powering microbial growth in subsurface sediments Zhao, Rui Mogollón, José M. Abby, Sophie S. Schleper, Christa Biddle, Jennifer F. Roerdink, Desiree L. Thorseth, Ingunn H. Jørgensen, Steffen L. 2020-12-22 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7768721/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33288718 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2005917117 en eng National Academy of Sciences http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7768721/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33288718 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2005917117 Copyright © 2020 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . CC-BY Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Biological Sciences Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2005917117 2021-01-17T01:21:04Z No other environment hosts as many microbial cells as the marine sedimentary biosphere. While the majority of these cells are expected to be alive, they are speculated to be persisting in a state of maintenance without net growth due to extreme starvation. Here, we report evidence for in situ growth of anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria in ∼80,000-y-old subsurface sediments from the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge. The growth is confined to the nitrate–ammonium transition zone (NATZ), a widespread geochemical transition zone where most of the upward ammonium flux from deep anoxic sediments is being consumed. In this zone the anammox bacteria abundances, assessed by quantification of marker genes, consistently displayed a four order of magnitude increase relative to adjacent layers in four cores. This subsurface cell increase coincides with a markedly higher power supply driven mainly by intensified anammox reaction rates, thereby providing a quantitative link between microbial proliferation and energy availability. The reconstructed draft genome of the dominant anammox bacterium showed an index of replication (iRep) of 1.32, suggesting that 32% of this population was actively replicating. The genome belongs to a Scalindua species which we name Candidatus Scalindua sediminis, so far exclusively found in marine sediments. It has the capacity to utilize urea and cyanate and a mixotrophic lifestyle. Our results demonstrate that specific microbial groups are not only able to survive unfavorable conditions over geological timescales, but can proliferate in situ when encountering ideal conditions with significant consequences for biogeochemical nitrogen cycling. Text Arctic PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 51 32617 32626 |
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English |
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Biological Sciences |
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Biological Sciences Zhao, Rui Mogollón, José M. Abby, Sophie S. Schleper, Christa Biddle, Jennifer F. Roerdink, Desiree L. Thorseth, Ingunn H. Jørgensen, Steffen L. Geochemical transition zone powering microbial growth in subsurface sediments |
topic_facet |
Biological Sciences |
description |
No other environment hosts as many microbial cells as the marine sedimentary biosphere. While the majority of these cells are expected to be alive, they are speculated to be persisting in a state of maintenance without net growth due to extreme starvation. Here, we report evidence for in situ growth of anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria in ∼80,000-y-old subsurface sediments from the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge. The growth is confined to the nitrate–ammonium transition zone (NATZ), a widespread geochemical transition zone where most of the upward ammonium flux from deep anoxic sediments is being consumed. In this zone the anammox bacteria abundances, assessed by quantification of marker genes, consistently displayed a four order of magnitude increase relative to adjacent layers in four cores. This subsurface cell increase coincides with a markedly higher power supply driven mainly by intensified anammox reaction rates, thereby providing a quantitative link between microbial proliferation and energy availability. The reconstructed draft genome of the dominant anammox bacterium showed an index of replication (iRep) of 1.32, suggesting that 32% of this population was actively replicating. The genome belongs to a Scalindua species which we name Candidatus Scalindua sediminis, so far exclusively found in marine sediments. It has the capacity to utilize urea and cyanate and a mixotrophic lifestyle. Our results demonstrate that specific microbial groups are not only able to survive unfavorable conditions over geological timescales, but can proliferate in situ when encountering ideal conditions with significant consequences for biogeochemical nitrogen cycling. |
format |
Text |
author |
Zhao, Rui Mogollón, José M. Abby, Sophie S. Schleper, Christa Biddle, Jennifer F. Roerdink, Desiree L. Thorseth, Ingunn H. Jørgensen, Steffen L. |
author_facet |
Zhao, Rui Mogollón, José M. Abby, Sophie S. Schleper, Christa Biddle, Jennifer F. Roerdink, Desiree L. Thorseth, Ingunn H. Jørgensen, Steffen L. |
author_sort |
Zhao, Rui |
title |
Geochemical transition zone powering microbial growth in subsurface sediments |
title_short |
Geochemical transition zone powering microbial growth in subsurface sediments |
title_full |
Geochemical transition zone powering microbial growth in subsurface sediments |
title_fullStr |
Geochemical transition zone powering microbial growth in subsurface sediments |
title_full_unstemmed |
Geochemical transition zone powering microbial growth in subsurface sediments |
title_sort |
geochemical transition zone powering microbial growth in subsurface sediments |
publisher |
National Academy of Sciences |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7768721/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33288718 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2005917117 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7768721/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33288718 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2005917117 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2020 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2005917117 |
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
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117 |
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51 |
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32617 |
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32626 |
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