Biocant-Biotechnology Innovation Centre, 3060-197 Cantanhede, Portugal.
IMAR-Institute of Marine Research, University of Azores, 9901-861 Horta, Portugal.
Mar Drugs. 2012 Aug;10(8):1765-1783. doi: 10.3390/md10081765. Epub 2012 Aug 20.
Deep-sea environments are largely unexplored habitats where a surprising number of species may be found in large communities, thriving regardless of the darkness, extreme cold, and high pressure. Their unique geochemical features result in reducing environments rich in methane and sulfides, sustaining complex chemosynthetic ecosystems that represent one of the most surprising findings in oceans in the last 40 years. The deep-sea Lucky Strike hydrothermal vent field, located in the Mid Atlantic Ridge, is home to large vent mussel communities where Bathymodiolus azoricus represents the dominant faunal biomass, owing its survival to symbiotic associations with methylotrophic or methanotrophic and thiotrophic bacteria. The recent transcriptome sequencing and analysis of gill tissues from B. azoricus revealed a number of genes of bacterial origin, hereby analyzed to provide a functional insight into the gill microbial community. The transcripts supported a metabolically active microbiome and a variety of mechanisms and pathways, evidencing also the sulfur and methane metabolisms. Taxonomic affiliation of transcripts and 16S rRNA community profiling revealed a microbial community dominated by thiotrophic and methanotrophic endosymbionts of B. azoricus and the presence of a Sulfurovum-like epsilonbacterium.
深海环境是大部分尚未开发的栖息地，其中可能存在大量的物种，它们生活在大型群落中，尽管环境黑暗、极寒和高压，却依然繁荣。其独特的地球化学特征导致富含甲烷和硫化物的环境减少，维持着复杂的化能合成生态系统，这是过去 40 年来海洋中最令人惊讶的发现之一。位于大西洋中脊的深海幸运号热液喷口场是大型喷口贻贝群落的家园，其中 Bathymodiolus azoricus 是主要的动物生物量，它通过与甲基营养型或甲烷营养型和硫营养型细菌的共生关系得以生存。最近对 B. azoricus 鳃组织的转录组测序和分析揭示了许多细菌来源的基因，对这些基因进行了分析，以提供对鳃微生物群落的功能洞察。这些转录本支持了一个具有代谢活性的微生物组，以及多种机制和途径，也证明了硫和甲烷的代谢。转录本的分类群归属和 16S rRNA 群落分析揭示了一个以 B. azoricus 的硫营养型和甲烷营养型内共生体为主导的微生物群落，以及 Sulfurovum 样的ε-变形菌的存在。
