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Microbial Biofilms Along a Geochemical Gradient at the Shallow-Water Hydrothermal System of Vulcano Island, Mediterranean Sea

Shallow water hydrothermal vents represent highly dynamic environments where strong geochemical gradients can shape microbial communities. Recently, these systems are being widely used for investigating the effects of ocean acidification on biota as vent emissions can release high CO(2) concentratio...

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Autores principales: Sciutteri, Valentina, Smedile, Francesco, Vizzini, Salvatrice, Mazzola, Antonio, Vetriani, Costantino
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8905295/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35283854
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.840205
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author Sciutteri, Valentina
Smedile, Francesco
Vizzini, Salvatrice
Mazzola, Antonio
Vetriani, Costantino
author_facet Sciutteri, Valentina
Smedile, Francesco
Vizzini, Salvatrice
Mazzola, Antonio
Vetriani, Costantino
author_sort Sciutteri, Valentina
collection PubMed
description Shallow water hydrothermal vents represent highly dynamic environments where strong geochemical gradients can shape microbial communities. Recently, these systems are being widely used for investigating the effects of ocean acidification on biota as vent emissions can release high CO(2) concentrations causing local pH reduction. However, other gas species, as well as trace elements and metals, are often released in association with CO(2) and can potentially act as confounding factors. In this study, we evaluated the composition, diversity and inferred functional profiles of microbial biofilms in Levante Bay (Vulcano Island, Italy, Mediterranean Sea), a well-studied shallow-water hydrothermal vent system. We analyzed 16S rRNA transcripts from biofilms exposed to different intensity of hydrothermal activity, following a redox and pH gradient across the bay. We found that elevated CO(2) concentrations causing low pH can affect the response of bacterial groups and taxa by either increasing or decreasing their relative abundance. H(2)S proved to be a highly selective factor shaping the composition and affecting the diversity of the community by selecting for sulfide-dependent, chemolithoautotrophic bacteria. The analysis of the 16S rRNA transcripts, along with the inferred functional profile of the communities, revealed a strong influence of H(2)S in the southern portion of the study area, and temporal succession affected the inferred abundance of genes for key metabolic pathways. Our results revealed that the composition of the microbial assemblages vary at very small spatial scales, mirroring the highly variable geochemical signature of vent emissions and cautioning for the use of these environments as models to investigate the effects of ocean acidification on microbial diversity.
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spelling pubmed-89052952022-03-10 Microbial Biofilms Along a Geochemical Gradient at the Shallow-Water Hydrothermal System of Vulcano Island, Mediterranean Sea Sciutteri, Valentina Smedile, Francesco Vizzini, Salvatrice Mazzola, Antonio Vetriani, Costantino Front Microbiol Microbiology Shallow water hydrothermal vents represent highly dynamic environments where strong geochemical gradients can shape microbial communities. Recently, these systems are being widely used for investigating the effects of ocean acidification on biota as vent emissions can release high CO(2) concentrations causing local pH reduction. However, other gas species, as well as trace elements and metals, are often released in association with CO(2) and can potentially act as confounding factors. In this study, we evaluated the composition, diversity and inferred functional profiles of microbial biofilms in Levante Bay (Vulcano Island, Italy, Mediterranean Sea), a well-studied shallow-water hydrothermal vent system. We analyzed 16S rRNA transcripts from biofilms exposed to different intensity of hydrothermal activity, following a redox and pH gradient across the bay. We found that elevated CO(2) concentrations causing low pH can affect the response of bacterial groups and taxa by either increasing or decreasing their relative abundance. H(2)S proved to be a highly selective factor shaping the composition and affecting the diversity of the community by selecting for sulfide-dependent, chemolithoautotrophic bacteria. The analysis of the 16S rRNA transcripts, along with the inferred functional profile of the communities, revealed a strong influence of H(2)S in the southern portion of the study area, and temporal succession affected the inferred abundance of genes for key metabolic pathways. Our results revealed that the composition of the microbial assemblages vary at very small spatial scales, mirroring the highly variable geochemical signature of vent emissions and cautioning for the use of these environments as models to investigate the effects of ocean acidification on microbial diversity. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-02-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8905295/ /pubmed/35283854 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.840205 Text en Copyright © 2022 Sciutteri, Smedile, Vizzini, Mazzola and Vetriani. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Sciutteri, Valentina
Smedile, Francesco
Vizzini, Salvatrice
Mazzola, Antonio
Vetriani, Costantino
Microbial Biofilms Along a Geochemical Gradient at the Shallow-Water Hydrothermal System of Vulcano Island, Mediterranean Sea
title Microbial Biofilms Along a Geochemical Gradient at the Shallow-Water Hydrothermal System of Vulcano Island, Mediterranean Sea
title_full Microbial Biofilms Along a Geochemical Gradient at the Shallow-Water Hydrothermal System of Vulcano Island, Mediterranean Sea
title_fullStr Microbial Biofilms Along a Geochemical Gradient at the Shallow-Water Hydrothermal System of Vulcano Island, Mediterranean Sea
title_full_unstemmed Microbial Biofilms Along a Geochemical Gradient at the Shallow-Water Hydrothermal System of Vulcano Island, Mediterranean Sea
title_short Microbial Biofilms Along a Geochemical Gradient at the Shallow-Water Hydrothermal System of Vulcano Island, Mediterranean Sea
title_sort microbial biofilms along a geochemical gradient at the shallow-water hydrothermal system of vulcano island, mediterranean sea
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8905295/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35283854
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.840205
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