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Thermogenic hydrocarbon biodegradation by diverse depth-stratified microbial populations at a Scotian Basin cold seep

At marine cold seeps, gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons migrate from deep subsurface origins to the sediment-water interface. Cold seep sediments are known to host taxonomically diverse microorganisms, but little is known about their metabolic potential and depth distribution in relation to hydrocarbo...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Dong, Xiyang, Rattray, Jayne E., Campbell, D. Calvin, Webb, Jamie, Chakraborty, Anirban, Adebayo, Oyeboade, Matthews, Stuart, Li, Carmen, Fowler, Martin, Morrison, Natasha M., MacDonald, Adam, Groves, Ryan A., Lewis, Ian A., Wang, Scott H., Mayumi, Daisuke, Greening, Chris, Hubert, Casey R. J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7673041/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33203858
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19648-2
Descripción
Sumario:At marine cold seeps, gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons migrate from deep subsurface origins to the sediment-water interface. Cold seep sediments are known to host taxonomically diverse microorganisms, but little is known about their metabolic potential and depth distribution in relation to hydrocarbon and electron acceptor availability. Here we combined geophysical, geochemical, metagenomic and metabolomic measurements to profile microbial activities at a newly discovered cold seep in the deep sea. Metagenomic profiling revealed compositional and functional differentiation between near-surface sediments and deeper subsurface layers. In both sulfate-rich and sulfate-depleted depths, various archaeal and bacterial community members are actively oxidizing thermogenic hydrocarbons anaerobically. Depth distributions of hydrocarbon-oxidizing archaea revealed that they are not necessarily associated with sulfate reduction, which is especially surprising for anaerobic ethane and butane oxidizers. Overall, these findings link subseafloor microbiomes to various biochemical mechanisms for the anaerobic degradation of deeply-sourced thermogenic hydrocarbons.