Seafloor Incubation Experiment with Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Fluid Reveals Effect of Pressure and Lag Time on Autotrophic Microbial Communities
| Autor: | David A. Butterfield, Caroline S. Fortunato, Christopher K. Algar, Giora Proskurowski, Begüm D. Topçuoğlu, Lucy C. Stewart, B. I. Larson, Joseph J. Vallino, Noah Lawrence-Slavas, Lisa Zeigler Allen, James F. Holden, Julie A. Huber, Emily Reddington |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Biogeochemical cycle
Time Factors Seamount Stable-isotope probing hydrothermal vent Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology Deep sea 03 medical and health sciences Hydrothermal Vents RNA Ribosomal 16S Environmental Microbiology Pressure Seawater Autotroph Spotlight RNA-SIP Ships 030304 developmental biology instrumentation 0303 health sciences geography metagenomics Autotrophic Processes Bacteriological Techniques geography.geographical_feature_category metatranscriptomics Ecology Primary producers Bacteria Base Sequence 030306 microbiology Microbiota fungi Metagenomics deep sea Environmental chemistry autotrophy Environmental science Metagenome geographic locations Food Science Biotechnology Hydrothermal vent |
| Zdroj: | Applied and Environmental Microbiology |
| ISSN: | 1098-5336 0099-2240 |
| Popis: | Diverse microbial communities drive biogeochemical cycles in Earth’s ocean, yet studying these organisms and processes is often limited by technological capabilities, especially in the deep ocean. In this study, we used a novel marine microbial incubator instrument capable of in situ experimentation to investigate microbial primary producers at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Depressurization and sample processing delays may impact the outcome of shipboard microbial incubations of samples collected from the deep sea. To address this knowledge gap, we developed a remotely operated vehicle (ROV)-powered incubator instrument to carry out and compare results from in situ and shipboard RNA stable isotope probing (RNA-SIP) experiments to identify the key chemolithoautotrophic microbes and metabolisms in diffuse, low-temperature venting fluids from Axial Seamount. All the incubations showed microbial uptake of labeled bicarbonate primarily by thermophilic autotrophic Epsilonbacteraeota that oxidized hydrogen coupled with nitrate reduction. However, the in situ seafloor incubations showed higher abundances of transcripts annotated for aerobic processes, suggesting that oxygen was lost from the hydrothermal fluid samples prior to shipboard analysis. Furthermore, transcripts for thermal stress proteins such as heat shock chaperones and proteases were significantly more abundant in the shipboard incubations, suggesting that depressurization induced thermal stress in the metabolically active microbes in these incubations. Together, the results indicate that while the autotrophic microbial communities in the shipboard and seafloor experiments behaved similarly, there were distinct differences that provide new insight into the activities of natural microbial assemblages under nearly native conditions in the ocean. IMPORTANCE Diverse microbial communities drive biogeochemical cycles in Earth’s ocean, yet studying these organisms and processes is often limited by technological capabilities, especially in the deep ocean. In this study, we used a novel marine microbial incubator instrument capable of in situ experimentation to investigate microbial primary producers at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. We carried out identical stable isotope probing experiments coupled to RNA sequencing both on the seafloor and on the ship to examine thermophilic, microbial autotrophs in venting fluids from an active submarine volcano. Our results indicate that microbial communities were significantly impacted by the effects of depressurization and sample processing delays, with shipboard microbial communities being more stressed than seafloor incubations. Differences in metabolism were also apparent and are likely linked to the chemistry of the fluid at the beginning of the experiment. Microbial experimentation in the natural habitat provides new insights into understanding microbial activities in the ocean. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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