Intra-Field Variation of Prokaryotic Communities On and Below the Seafloor in the Back-Arc Hydrothermal System of the Southern Mariana Trough

Abstract

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents harbor diverse prokaryotes. There are a variety of habitat types in a deep-sea hydrothermal field, e.g., active and inactive chimneys, iron-rich mats, venting fluid and hydrothermal plume. Numerous studies have shown the diversity and composition of prokaryotic communities in individual habitats. However, it is still unclear whether and how the characteristics of prokaryotic communities in their respective habitats are different. Previously, we reported 16S rRNA genes in a variety of habitats, i.e., hydrothermally active and inactive chimneys, iron-rich mats, a vent fluid, crustal fluids from boreholes, as well as ambient seawater in a back-arc basin hydrothermal field of the Southern Mariana Trough. Here we summarize the prokaryotic communities in the collected samples at higher taxonomic resolution (up to family level) using the detected 16S rRNA gene sequences and compare them using recently developed bioinformatics tools. The comparative analysis clearly highlights differences in prokaryotic communities among the habitat types on and below the seafloor in the Southern Mariana Trough. Furthermore, descriptions of cultured species and environmental clones close to the detected sequences provide valuable information for understanding of their distribution and potential of ecological roles in deep-sea hydrothermal fields.

The Chthonomonas calidirosea Genome Is Highly Conserved across Geographic Locations and Distinct Chemical and Microbial Environments in New Zealand's Taupō Volcanic Zone

“…The Crenarchaeota , which were mainly Thermoprotei (nine OTUs [39 to 58% of total sequence reads]) ( 45 ), dominated all communities except TKT. The deep-branching MBG-A group ( 45 – 48 ) (12 OTUs [13 to 28% of total sequence reads]) dominated the TKT community (57% of OTUs). In this study, the class Thermoprotei was predominantly represented by the lineage YNPFFA, which is also associated with geothermal features at Yellowstone National Park, USA ( 49 ).…”

Description and functional testing of four species of the novel phototrophic genus Chioneia gen. nov., isolated from different East Antarctic environments

“…Members of the Sphingomonadaceae are widespread on Earth and have been found, using culture-dependent and -independent approaches, in a variety of environments including marine [20,44,62,63,76], freshwater [16,21,37,86] and wastewater habitats [82,119], plants [28,83,96], clinical specimens [39], the gut of the house sparrow Passer domesticus [78], soil [2,17,112], and various extreme environments such as permafrost soil [43], Arctic and Antarctic habitats [15,19,36,50,65,81,85,86,94,104,106,108] and hydrothermal vents [47].…”

Sphingorhabdus lacus sp. nov. and Sphingorhabdus profundilacus sp. nov., isolated from freshwater environments

“…nov. and Sphingorhabdus profundilacus sp. nov., isolated from freshwater environments The family Sphingomonadaceae [1] of the class Alphaproteobacteria has been widely found in various environments [2][3][4][5] and represents one of the major alphaproteobacterial lineages in particular habitats including deep-sea hydrothermal vents, phosphogypsum waste heap soil and bittercress leaves [6][7][8]. As the name suggests, members of the family are characterized by harbouring sphingoglycolipid (SGL) in their cellular lipids and show diverse physiological properties such as phototrophy based on rhodopsin or aerobic anoxygenic photosynthesis, pathogenicity, degradation of xenobiotic compounds, and production of exopolysaccharides [3].…”