We have applied a global analytical approach to uncultured Archaea that for the first time reveals well-defined community patterns along broad environmental gradients and habitat types. Phylogenetic patterns and the environmental factors governing the creation and maintenance of these patterns were analyzed for c. 2000 archaeal 16S rRNA gene sequences from 67 globally distributed studies. The sequences were dereplicated at 97% identity, grouped into seven habitat types, and analyzed with both Unifrac (to explore shared phylogenetic history) and multivariate regression tree (that considers the relative abundance of the lineages or taxa) approaches. Both phylogenetic and taxon-based approaches showed salinity and not temperature as one of the principal driving forces at the global scale. Hydrothermal vents and planktonic freshwater habitats emerged as the largest reservoirs of archaeal diversity and consequently are promising environments for the discovery of new archaeal lineages. Conversely, soils were more phylogenetically clustered and archaeal diversity was the result of a high number of closely related phylotypes rather than different lineages. Applying the ecological concept of 'indicator species', we detected up to 13 indicator archaeal lineages for the seven habitats prospected. Some of these lineages (that is, hypersaline MSBL1, marine sediment FCG1 and freshwater plSA1), for which ecological importance has remained unseen to date, deserve further attention as they represent potential key archaeal groups in terms of distribution and ecological processes. Hydrothermal vents held the highest number of indicator lineages, suggesting it would be the earliest habitat colonized by Archaea. Overall, our approach provided ecological support for the often arbitrary nomenclature within uncultured Archaea, as well as phylogeographical clues on key ecological and evolutionary aspects of archaeal biology.

Marine microbes have tremendous diversity, but a fundamental question remains unanswered: why are there so many microbial species in the sea? The idea of functional redundancy for microbial communities has long been assumed, so that the high level of richness is often explained by the presence of different taxa that are able to conduct the exact same set of metabolic processes and that can readily replace each other. Here, we refute the hypothesis of functional redundancy for marine microbial communities by showing that a shift in the community composition altered the overall functional attributes of communities across different temporal and spatial scales. Our metagenomic monitoring of a coastal northwestern Mediterranean site also revealed that diverse microbial communities harbor a high diversity of potential proteins. Working with all information given by the metagenomes (all reads) rather than relying only on known genes (annotated orthologous genes) was essential for revealing the similarity between taxonomic and functional community compositions. Our finding does not exclude the possibility for a partial redundancy where organisms that share some specific function can coexist when they differ in other ecological requirements. It demonstrates, however, that marine microbial diversity reflects a tremendous diversity of microbial metabolism and highlights the genetic potential yet to be discovered in an ocean of microbes.

Freshwater habitats have been identified as one of the largest reservoirs of archaeal genetic diversity, with specific lineages of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) populations different from soils and seas. The ecology and biology of lacustrine AOA is, however, poorly known. In the present study, vertical changes in archaeal abundance by CARD-FISH, quantitative PCR (qPCR) analyses and identity by clone libraries were correlated with environmental parameters in the deep glacial high-altitude Lake Redon. The lake is located in the central Spanish Pyrenees where atmospheric depositions are the main source of reactive nitrogen. Strong correlations were found between abundance of thaumarchaeotal 16S rRNA gene, archaeal amoA gene and nitrite concentrations, indicating an ammonium oxidation potential by these microorganisms. The bacterial amoA gene was not detected. Three depths with potential ammonia-oxidation activity were unveiled along the vertical gradient, (i) on the top of the lake in winter–spring (that is, the 0 oC slush layers above the ice-covered sheet), (ii) at the thermocline and (iii) the bottom waters in summer—autumn. Overall, up to 90% of the 16S rRNA gene sequences matched Thaumarchaeota, mostly from both the Marine Group (MG) 1.1a (Nitrosoarchaeum-like) and the sister clade SAGMGC−1 (Nitrosotalea-like). Clone-libraries analysis showed the two clades changed their relative abundances with water depth being higher in surface and lower in depth for SAGMGC−1 than for MG 1.1a, reflecting a vertical phylogenetic segregation. Overall, the relative abundance and recurrent appearance of SAGMGC−1 suggests a significant environmental role of this clade in alpine lakes. These results expand the set of ecological and thermal conditions where Thaumarchaeota are distributed, unveiling vertical positioning in the water column as a key factor to understand the ecology of different thaumarchaeotal clades in lacustrine environments.

We have surveyed the first 1 m of 10 oligotrophic high mountain lakes in the Central Pyrenees (Spain) for both abundance and predominant phylotypes richness of the archaeaplankton assemblage, using CARD-FISH and 16S rRNA gene sequencing respectively. Archaea inhabiting the air-water surface microlayer (neuston) ranged between 3% and 37% of total 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) counts and were mainly Crenarchaeota of a new freshwater cluster distantly related to the Marine Group 1.1a. Conversely, most of the Archaea from the underlying waters (the remaining first 1 m integrated) were mainly Euryarchaeota of three distantly related branches ranging between 0.4% and 27% of total DAPI counts. Therefore, a consistent qualitative and quantitative spatial segregation was observed for the two main archaeal phyla between neuston and underlying waters at a regional scale. We also observed a consistent pattern along the lakes surveyed between lake area, lake depth and water residence time, and the archaeal enrichment in the neuston: the larger the lake the higher the proportion of archaea in the neuston as compared with abundances from the underlying waters (n = 10 lakes; R(2) > 0.80; P < 0.001, in all three cases). This is the first report identifying a widespread non-thermophilic habitat where freshwater planktonic Crenarchaeota can be found naturally enriched. High mountain lakes offer great research opportunities to explore the ecology of one of the most enigmatic and far from being understood group of prokaryotes.

The annual changes in the composition and abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) were analyzed monthly in surface waters of three high mountain lakes within the Limnological Observatory of the Pyrenees (LOOP; northeast Spain) using both 16S rRNA and functional (ammonia monooxygenase gene, amoA) gene sequencing as well as quantitative PCR amplification. The set of biological data was related to changes in nitrogen species and to other relevant environmental variables. The whole archaeal assemblage was dominated by phylotypes closely related to the crenarchaeal 1.1a group (58% ؎ 18% of total 16S rRNA gene sequences), and consistent structural changes were detected during the study. Water temperature was the environmental variable that better explained spring, summer, and winter (ice-covered lakes) archaeal assemblage structure. The amoA gene was detected year round, and seasonal changes in amoA gene composition were well correlated with changes in the archaeal 16S rRNA gene pool. In addition, copy numbers of both the specific 1.1a group 16 rRNA and archaeal amoA genes were well correlated, suggesting that most freshwater 1.1a Crenarchaeota had the potential to carry out ammonia oxidation. Seasonal changes in the diversity and abundance of AOA (i.e., amoA) were better explained by temporal changes in ammonium, the substrate for nitrification, and mostly nitrite, the product of ammonia oxidation. Lacustrine amoA gene sequences grouped in coherent freshwater phylogenetic clusters, suggesting that freshwater habitats harbor typical amoA-containing ecotypes, which is different from soils and seas. We observed within the freshwater amoA gene sequence pool a high genetic divergence (translating to up to 32% amino acid divergence) between the spring and the remaining AOA assemblages. This suggests that different AOA ecotypes are adapted to different temporal ecological niches in these lakes.For almost 30 years, the ubiquity of nitrification, particularly in the most oligotrophic environments, had constituted an enigma for ecologists (28,52). First, because of very low natural abundances of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), the a priori unique microorganisms with the potential to catalyze the first step of nitrification had been reported (e.g., 0.1% of total bacterial assemblage in oceanic habitats) (9, 38), and second, because field measurements indicated that the oxidation of ammonia (NH 4 ϩ ) to nitrate was feasible in situ even in the most oligotrophic habitats, where NH 4 ϩ concentrations were below the affinity threshold for AOB (8). Five years ago, metagenomics provided an answer to the enigma and radically changed the general perception of the nitrification process (65, 67). The presence of putative ammonia monooxygenase subunits (amoA, amoB, and amoC) within the genomes of widespread and abundant microorganisms of the domain Archaea (65, 67), as well as the chemolithoautotrophic growth using ammonia as an energy source observed in the recently isolated Crenarchaeota Nitrosopumilus maritimus (37), has fuelled...

Members of the archaeal Miscellaneous Crenarchaeotic Group (MCG) are among the most successful microorganisms on the planet. During its evolutionary diversification, this very diverse group has managed to cross the saline-freshwater boundary, one of the most important evolutionary barriers structuring microbial communities. However, the current understanding on the ecological significance of MCG in freshwater habitats is scarce and the evolutionary relationships between freshwater and saline MCG remains poorly known. Here, we carried out molecular phylogenies using publicly available 16S rRNA gene sequences from various geographic locations to investigate the distribution of MCG in freshwater and saline sediments and to evaluate the implications of salinefreshwater transitions during the diversification events. Our approach provided a robust ecological framework in which MCG archaea appeared as a core generalist group in the sediment realm. However, the analysis of the complex intragroup phylogeny of the 21 subgroups currently forming the MCG lineage revealed that distinct evolutionary MCG subgroups have arisen in marine and freshwater sediments suggesting the occurrence of adaptive evolution specific to each habitat. The ancestral state reconstruction analysis indicated that this segregation was mainly due to the occurrence of a few saline-freshwater transition events during the MCG diversification. In addition, a network analysis showed that both saline and freshwater MCG recurrently co-occur with archaea of the class Thermoplasmata in sediment ecosystems, suggesting a potentially relevant trophic connection between the two clades.

BackgroundThe global distribution of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), which play a pivotal role in the nitrification process, has been confirmed through numerous ecological studies. Though newly available amoA (ammonia monooxygenase subunit A) gene sequences from new environments are accumulating rapidly in public repositories, a lack of information on the ecological and evolutionary factors shaping community assembly of AOA on the global scale is apparent.Methodology and ResultsWe conducted a meta-analysis on uncultured AOA using over ca. 6,200 archaeal amoA gene sequences, so as to reveal their community distribution patterns along a wide spectrum of physicochemical conditions and habitat types. The sequences were dereplicated at 95% identity level resulting in a dataset containing 1,476 archaeal amoA gene sequences from eight habitat types: namely soil, freshwater, freshwater sediment, estuarine sediment, marine water, marine sediment, geothermal system, and symbiosis. The updated comprehensive amoA phylogeny was composed of three major monophyletic clusters (i.e. Nitrosopumilus, Nitrosotalea, Nitrosocaldus) and a non-monophyletic cluster constituted mostly by soil and sediment sequences that we named Nitrososphaera. Diversity measurements indicated that marine and estuarine sediments as well as symbionts might be the largest reservoirs of AOA diversity. Phylogenetic analyses were further carried out using macroevolutionary analyses to explore the diversification pattern and rates of nitrifying archaea. In contrast to other habitats that displayed constant diversification rates, marine planktonic AOA interestingly exhibit a very recent and accelerating diversification rate congruent with the lowest phylogenetic diversity observed in their habitats. This result suggested the existence of AOA communities with different evolutionary history in the different habitats.Conclusion and SignificanceBased on an up-to-date amoA phylogeny, this analysis provided insights into the possible evolutionary mechanisms and environmental parameters that shape AOA community assembly at global scale.

We investigated the spatial distribution and diversity of ammonia-oxidizing Archaea (AOA) across gradients of pH, trophic status and altitude in a set of high mountain lakes (Limnological Observatory of the Pyrenees, north-east Spain). Both phylogeny- and taxonomy-based approaches revealed well-defined AOA community patterns with pH as the main potential driving environmental factor. The I.1a and SAGMGC-1 Thaumarchaeota clusters, and their potentially associated amoA gene variants (clusters Fresh 5 and Soil/Fresh 1, respectively) showed highest relative abundances in the most oligotrophic lakes. Euryarchaeota (i.e. HV-Fresh cluster, Methanomicrobiales and Thermoplasmatales) dominated in lakes with higher trophic status. Phylogenetic diversity (PD) in Pyrenean lakes was 1.5- to 2.3-fold higher than the PD from an equivalent number of globally distributed marine and soil sites. We observed segregated distributions for SAGMGC-1, preferentially distributed in the lakes with the lowest pH (< 5) and the highest nitrite concentration (> 0.12 μm), and I.1a in lakes with lower nitrite and dissolved organic carbon concentrations below 0.5 mg L(-1) . Overall, these results showed strong selection by local environmental conditions, unveiled new ecological niches for freshwater SAGMGC-1 in low pH oligotrophic lakes, and suggested specific and successful adaptations of planktonic archaea to the high mountain lakes landscape.