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Extremely low abundance microorganisms (members of the "rare biosphere") are believed to include dormant taxa, which can sporadically become abundant following environmental triggers. Yet, microbial transitions from rare to abundant have seldom been captured in situ, and it is uncertain how widespread these transitions are. A bloom of a single ribotype (≥99% similarity in the 16S ribosomal RNA gene) of a widespread betaproteobacterium (Janthinobacterium sp.) occurred over 2 weeks in Arctic marine waters. The Janthinobacterium population was not detected microscopically in situ in January and early February, but suddenly appeared in the water column thereafter, eventually accounting for up to 20% of bacterial cells in mid February. During the bloom, this bacterium was detected at open water sites up to 50km apart, being abundant down to more than 300 m. This event is one of the largest monospecific bacterial blooms reported in polar oceans. It is also remarkable because Betaproteobacteria are typically found only in low abundance in marine environments. In particular, Janthinobacterium were known from non-marine habitats and had previously been detected only in the rare biosphere of seawater samples, including the polar oceans. The Arctic Janthinobacterium formed mucilagenous monolayer aggregates after short (ca. 8 h) incubations, suggesting that biofilm formation may play a role in maintaining rare bacteria in pelagic marine environments. The spontaneous mass occurrence of this opportunistic rare taxon in polar waters during the energy-limited season extends current knowledge of how and when microbial transitions between rare and abundant occur in the ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although cyanobacterial diazotrophs are common in Arctic terrestrial and freshwater habitats, they have been assumed to be absent from Arctic marine habitats. We report here a high diversity of cyanobacterial nifH genes in Fram Strait and the Greenland Sea. The nifH gene encodes the iron protein of the nitrogenase enzyme complex, which is essential for biological N2 fixation. Using primers specific for nifH genes we uncovered communities of autotrophic and heterotrophic bacteria in sea ice brine and seawater between latitudes 65 and 81°N. Cyanobacteria ( Oscillatoriales and Chroococcales) with known marine planktonic and benthic distributions were distinguished, alongside a mix of metabolically versatile eubacteria ( nifH Clusters I and III). Using primers selective for cyanobacterial nifH genes we identified filamentous non-heterocystous Trichodesmium-like and LPP ( Leptolyngbya, Phormidium and Plectonema)-like Oscillatoriales, as well as Cyanothece-like Chroococcales in a brine sample from 81°N. The occurrence of Trichodesmium-like cyanobacteria was further confirmed by sequences of the hetR gene of Trichodesmium. Microscopic examinations confirmed the presence of viable filamentous and unicellular cyanobacteria. Our results reveal the potential for microbial N2 fixation in the Arctic seas. However, it is still left to determine if these genes are also metabolically active before any biogeochemical importance of diazotrophy in the polar oceans can be assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although both autotrophic and heterotrophic microorganisms incorporate CO2 in the dark through different metabolic pathways, this process has usually been disregarded in oxic marine environments. We studied the significance and mediators of dark bicarbonate assimilation in dilution cultures inoculated with winter Arctic seawater. At stationary phase, bicarbonate incorporation rates were high (0.5-2.5 μg C L−1 d−1) and correlated with rates of bacterial heterotrophic production, suggesting that most of the incorporation was due to heterotrophs. Accordingly, very few typically chemoautotrophic bacteria were detected by 16S rRNA gene cloning. The genetic analysis of the biotin carboxylase gene accC putatively involved in archaeal CO2 fixation did not yield any archaeal sequence, but amplified a variety of bacterial carboxylases involved in fatty acids biosynthesis, anaplerotic pathways and leucine catabolism. Gammaproteobacteria dominated the seawater cultures (40-70% of cell counts), followed by Betaproteobacteria and Flavobacteria as shown by catalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARDFISH). Both Beta- and Gammaproteobacteria were active in leucine and bicarbonate uptake, while Flavobacteria did not take up bicarbonate, as measured by microautoradiography combined with CARDFISH. Within Gammaproteobacteria, Pseudoalteromonas-Colwellia and Oleispira were very active in bicarbonate uptake (ca. 30 and 70% of active cells, respectively), while the group Arctic96B-16 did not take up bicarbonate. Our results suggest that, potentially, the incorporation of CO2 can be relevant for the metabolism of specific Arctic heterotrophic phylotypes, promoting the maintenance of their cell activity and/or longer survival under resource depleted conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the Arctic Ocean ecosystem in climate regulation may depend on the responses of marine microorganisms to environmental change. We applied genome-resolved metagenomics to 41 Arctic seawater samples, collected at various depths in different seasons during the Tara Oceans Polar Circle expedition, to evaluate the ecology, metabolic potential and activity of resident bacteria and archaea. We assembled 530 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) to form the Arctic MAGs catalogue comprising 526 species. A total of 441 MAGs belonged to species that have not previously been reported and 299 genomes showed an exclusively polar distribution. Most Arctic MAGs have large genomes and the potential for fast generation times, both of which may enable adaptation to a copiotrophic lifestyle in nutrient-rich waters. We identified 38 habitat generalists and 111 specialists in the Arctic Ocean. We also found a general prevalence of 14 mixotrophs, while chemolithoautotrophs were mostly present in the mesopelagic layer during spring and autumn. We revealed 62 MAGs classified as key Arctic species, found only in the Arctic Ocean, showing the highest gene expression values and predicted to have habitat-specific traits. The Artic MAGs catalogue will inform our understanding of polar microorganisms that drive global biogeochemical cycles., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Background: Isolation of marine microorganisms is fundamental to gather information about their physiology, ecology and genomic content. To date, most of the bacterial isolation efforts have focused on the photic ocean leaving the deep ocean less explored. We have created a marine culture collection of heterotrophic bacteria (MARINHET) using a standard marine medium comprising a total of 1561 bacterial strains, and covering a variety of oceanographic regions from different seasons and years, from 2009 to 2015. Specifically, our marine collection contains isolates from both photic (817) and aphotic layers (744), including the mesopelagic (362) and the bathypelagic (382), from the North Western Mediterranean Sea, the North and South Atlantic Ocean, the Indian, the Pacific, and the Arctic Oceans. We described the taxonomy, the phylogenetic diversity and the biogeography of a fraction of the marine culturable microorganisms to enhance our knowledge about which heterotrophic marine isolates are recurrently retrieved across oceans and along different depths., Results: The partial sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene of all isolates revealed that they mainly affiliate with the classes Alphaproteobacteria (35.9%), Gammaproteobacteria (38.6%), and phylum Bacteroidetes (16.5%). In addition, Alteromonas and Erythrobacter genera were found the most common heterotrophic bacteria in the ocean growing in solid agar medium. When comparing all photic, mesopelagic, and bathypelagic isolates sequences retrieved from different stations, 37% of them were 100% identical. This percentage increased up to 59% when mesopelagic and bathypelagic strains were grouped as the aphotic dataset and compared to the photic dataset of isolates, indicating the ubiquity of some bacterial isolates along different ocean depths. Finally, we isolated three strains that represent a new species, and the genome comparison and phenotypic characterization of two of these strains (ISS653 and ISS1889) concluded that they belong to a new species within the genus Mesonia., Conclusions: Overall, this study highlights the relevance of culture-dependent studies, with focus on marine isolated bacteria from different oceanographic regions and depths, to provide a more comprehensive view of the culturable marine bacteria as part of the total marine microbial diversity.

The Antarctic and Arctic regions offer a unique opportunity to test factors shaping biogeography of marine microbial communities because these regions are geographically far apart, yet share similar selection pressures. Here, we report a comprehensive comparison of bacterioplankton diversity between polar oceans, using standardized methods for pyrosequencing the V6 region of the small subunit ribosomal (SSU) rRNA gene. Bacterial communities from lower latitude oceans were included, providing a global perspective. A clear difference between Southern and Arctic Ocean surface communities was evident, with 78% of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) unique to the Southern Ocean and 70% unique to the Arctic Ocean. Although polar ocean bacterial communities were more similar to each other than to lower latitude pelagic communities, analyses of depths, seasons, and coastal vs. open waters, the Southern and Arctic Ocean bacterioplankton communities consistently clustered separately from each other. Coastal surface Southern and Arctic Ocean communities were more dissimilar from their respective open ocean communities. In contrast, deep ocean communities differed less between poles and lower latitude deep waters and displayed different diversity patterns compared with the surface. In addition, estimated diversity (Chao1) for surface and deep communities did not correlate significantly with latitude or temperature. Our results suggest differences in environmental conditions at the poles and different selection mechanisms controlling surface and deep ocean community structure and diversity. Surface bacterioplankton may be subjected to more short-term, variable conditions, whereas deep communities appear to be structured by longer water-mass residence time and connectivity through ocean circulation.