1. Aerobic microbial communities in the sediments of a marine oxygen minimum zone
- Author
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Prosenjit Pyne, A. Peketi, Subhrangshu Mandal, Prabir Kumar Haldar, Wriddhiman Ghosh, Moidu Jameela Rameez, Tarunendu Mapder, Rimi Roy, Jagannath Sarkar, Nibendu Mondal, Ranadhir Chakraborty, Sumit Chatterjee, Svetlana Fernandes, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, Aninda Mazumdar, Chayan Roy, and Masrure Alam
- Subjects
marine hypoxic zone sediments ,Aquatic Organisms ,Geologic Sediments ,Sulfitobacter ,Aerobic bacteria ,Microorganism ,Oceans and Seas ,Arabian Sea oxygen minimum zone ,Oxygen minimum zone ,Microbiology ,03 medical and health sciences ,Methylophaga ,Genetics ,Research Letter ,Environmental Microbiology ,genomics ,Molecular Biology ,030304 developmental biology ,Total organic carbon ,0303 health sciences ,Halomonas ,AcademicSubjects/SCI01150 ,biology ,Bacteria ,030306 microbiology ,Chemistry ,aerobic microorganisms ,Microbiota ,Hypoxia (environmental) ,biology.organism_classification ,Aerobiosis ,Oxygen ,Editor's Choice ,sulfur-oxidizing chemolithotrophs ,Environmental chemistry ,metaomics - Abstract
The ecology of aerobic microorganisms is never explored in marine oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) sediments. Here we reveal aerobic bacterial communities along ∼3 m sediment-horizons of the eastern Arabian Sea OMZ. Sulfide-containing sediment-cores retrieved from 530 mbsl (meters beneath the sea-level) and 580 mbsl were explored at 15–30 cm intervals, using metagenomics, pure-culture-isolation, genomics and metatranscriptomics. Genes for aerobic respiration, and oxidation of methane/ammonia/alcohols/thiosulfate/sulfite/organosulfur-compounds, were detected in the metagenomes from all 25 sediment-samples explored. Most probable numbers for aerobic chemolithoautotrophs and chemoorganoheterotrophs at individual sample-sites were up to 1.1 × 107 (g sediment)-1. The sediment-sample collected from 275 cmbsf (centimeters beneath the seafloor) of the 530-mbsl-core yielded many such obligately aerobic isolates belonging to Cereibacter, Guyparkeria, Halomonas, Methylophaga, Pseudomonas and Sulfitobacter which died upon anaerobic incubation, despite being provided with all possible electron acceptors and fermentative substrates. High percentages of metatranscriptomic reads from the 275 cmbsf sediment-sample, and metagenomic reads from all 25 sediment-samples, matched the isolates’ genomic sequences including those for aerobic metabolisms, genetic/environmental information processing and cell division, thereby illustrating the bacteria's in-situ activity, and ubiquity across the sediment-horizons, respectively. The findings hold critical implications for organic carbon sequestration/remineralization, and inorganic compounds oxidation, within the sediment realm of global marine OMZs., Aerobic microorganisms in marine oxygen minimum zone sediment.
- Published
- 2020