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Abstract: The autotrophic and ammonia-oxidizing crenarchaeal assemblage at offshore site located in the deep Mediterranean (Tyrrhenian Sea, depth 3000m) water was studied by PCR amplification of the key functional genes involved in energy (ammonia mono-oxygenase alpha subunit, amoA) and central metabolism (acetyl-CoA carboxylase alpha subunit, accA). Using two recently annotated genomes of marine crenarchaeons, an initial set of primers targeting archaeal accA-like genes was designed. Approximately 300 clones were analyzed, of which 100% of amoA library and almost 70% of accA library were unambiguously related to the corresponding genes from marine Crenarchaeota. Even though the acetyl-CoA carboxylase is phylogenetically not well conserved and the remaining clones were affiliated to various bacterial acetyl-CoA/propionyl-CoA carboxylase genes, the pool of archaeal sequences was applied for development of quantitative PCR analysis of accA-like distribution using TaqMan® methodolgy. The archaeal accA gene fragments, together with alignable gene fragments from the Sargasso Sea and North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (ALOHA Station) metagenome databases, were analyzed by multiple sequence alignment. Two accA-like sequences, found in ALOHA Station at the depth of 4000m, formed a deeply branched clade with 64% of all archaeal Tyrrhenian clones. No close relatives for residual 36% of clones, except of those recovered from Eastern Mediterranean, was found, suggesting the existence of a specific lineage of the crenarchaeal accA genes in deep Mediterranean water. Alignment of Mediterranean amoA sequences defined four cosmopolitan phylotypes of Crenarchaeota putative ammonia mono-oxygenase subunit A gene occurring in the water sample from the 3000m depth. Without exception all phylotypes fell into Deep Marine Group I cluster that contain the vast majority of known sequences recovered from global deep-sea environment. Remarkably, three phylotypes accounted for 91% of all Mediterranean amoA clones and corresponded to the sequences retrieved from the less deep compartments of the world''s ocean, most likely reflecting the higher temperature at the depth of the Mediterranean Sea. In order to verify whether these phylotypes might represent important Crenarchaeota in the functioning of the Mediterranean bathypelagic ecosystem, expression of crenarchaeal amoA gene was monitored by direct RNA retrieval and following analysis of amoA-related mRNA transcripts. Surprisingly, all mRNA-derived sequences formed a tight monophyletic group, which fell into large Shallow Marine Group I cluster with sequences retrieved from shallow (up to 200m) waters, sediments and corals. This group was not detected in DNA-based clone library, obviously, due to an overwhelming dominance of the Deep Marine Group I. The failure to recover the amoA transcripts, related to Deep Marine Group I of Crenarchaeota, was unanticipated and likely resulted from the physiology of these strongly adapted deep-sea organisms. As far as all seawater samples were treated on-board under atmospheric pressure conditions and sunlight, the decompression and/or photoinhibition likely affected their metabolic activity, followed by the strong decay of gene expression. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Predation by grazing protists in aquatic habitats can influence prokaryotic community structure and provides a source of new, labile organic matter. Due to methodological difficulties associated with studies of deep-sea (below photic zone) microbiota, trophic interactions between eukaryotes and prokaryotes in mesopelagic and bathypelagic realms are largely obscured. Further complicating matters, examinations of trophic interactions using water samples that have been exposed to upwards of hundreds of atmospheres of pressure change prior to initiating experiments can potentially introduce significant artifacts. Here we present results of the first study of protistan grazing in water layers ranging from the euphotic zone to the bathypelagic, utilizing the Microbial Sampler-Submersible Incubation Device (MS-SID) that makes possible in situ studies of microbial activities. Protistan grazing in the mesopelagic and bathypelagic realm of the East Mediterranean Sea was quantified using fluorescently labeled prokaryotes (FLP) prepared from the naturally-occurring prokaryotic assemblages. These studies reveal daily prokaryotic removal due to grazing ranging from 31.3±5.9% at 40 m depth to 0.5±0.3% at 950 m. At 3540 m depth, where a chemocline habitat exists with abundant and active prokaryotes above Urania basin, the daily consumption of prokaryotes by protists was 19.9±6.6% of the in situ abundance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Two samples of the same bathypelagic bacterioplankton community (Tyrrhenian Sea at the depth of 3000m) were collected during single cast by both traditional sampling with Niskin bottle and using a high pressure-maintaining HPSS sampler. Total RNA was isolated, reverse transcribed, amplified with Archaea-specific primers and cloned. Riboclones were sequenced, 117 riboclones from decompressed library and 104 rRNA-based riboclones retrieved from HPSS sampler. Both RNA libraries were additionally compared with 115 riboclones based on DNA obtained from the decompressed sample (16S rRNA genes). In terms of repetitive riboclones, obtained in all three libraries, the bathypelagic community was dominated by Crenarchaeota Marine Group I (52–64%). The combined analysis led to a characterization of sampling-specific phylotypes otherwise uncharacterized if only one type of library had been analyzed alone. Of the DNA riboclones, 22% were found only in this library and no close relatives of Euryarchaeota Marine Group II were detected in both RNA-based libraries, suggesting the dormant state of these organisms in deep-sea environment. For clones from the RNA libraries, one Crenarchaeota MG I phylotype did not indicate close relatives in the DNA library. In general, among 10 archaeal phylotypes recovered in total, 8, 7 and 6 of them were faced in DNA, RNA_HPSS and RNA decompressed libraries, respectively. Based on comparisons between all three libraries, our data indicate that (i) the short-term decompression of seawater samples during cast recovery and following treatments caused only slight changes in the total rRNA diversity and (ii) rRNA-based analysis is likely affected the characterization of phylotypes, present in deep-sea environment as the dormant cells, detected only on the DNA level. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The present study is focused on the development of a cultivation-independent molecular approach for specific detection of bioluminescent bacteria within microbial communities by direct amplification of luxA gene from environmental DNA. A new set of primers, specifically targeting free-living bioluminescent bacteria, was designed on the base of luxA sequences available from the public database. Meso- and bathypelagic seawater samples were collected from two stations in Tyrrhenian Sea at the depths of 500 and 2750m. The same seawater samples also were used to isolate bioluminescent bacteria that were further subjected to luxA and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. PCR products obtained by amplification with designed primers were cloned, and the phylogenetic affiliation of 40 clones was determined. All of them were clustered into three groups, only distantly related to the Photobacterium phosphoreum and Photobacterium kishitanii clades. The half of all clones formed a tight monophyletic clade, while the rest of clones were organized in “compartment”-specific, meso- and bathypelagic ecotypes. No matches with luxA gene sequences of four bioluminescent strains, isolated from the same seawater samples, were observed. These findings indicate that the PCR-based approach developed in present manuscript, allowed us to detect the novel, “yet to be cultivated” lineages of bioluminescent bacteria, which are likely specific for distinct warm bathypelagic realms of Mediterranean Sea. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]