Department of Genomic and Applied Microbiology and Göttingen Genomics Laboratory, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Grisebachstraße 8, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Archaea. 2012;2012:695826. doi: 10.1155/2012/695826. Epub 2012 Nov 12.
Archaea play an important role in various biogeochemical cycles. They are known extremophiles inhabiting environments such as thermal springs or hydrothermal vents. Recent studies have revealed a significant abundance of Archaea in moderate environments, for example, temperate sea water. Nevertheless, the composition and ecosystem function of these marine archaeal communities is largely unknown. To assess diversity and composition of active archaeal communities in the German Bight, seven marine water samples were taken and studied by RNA-based analysis of ribosomal 16S rRNA. For this purpose, total RNA was extracted from the samples and converted to cDNA. Archaeal community structures were investigated by pyrosequencing-based analysis of 16S rRNA amplicons generated from cDNA. To our knowledge, this is the first study combining next-generation sequencing and metatranscriptomics to study archaeal communities in marine habitats. The pyrosequencing-derived dataset comprised 62,045 archaeal 16S rRNA sequences. We identified Halobacteria as the predominant archaeal group across all samples with increased abundance in algal blooms. Thermoplasmatales (Euryarchaeota) and the Marine Group I (Thaumarchaeota) were identified in minor abundances. It is indicated that archaeal community patterns were influenced by environmental conditions.
古菌在各种生物地球化学循环中发挥着重要作用。它们是已知的栖息在热泉或热液喷口等极端环境中的微生物。最近的研究表明，古菌在中等环境中（例如，温带海水）的丰度也很高。然而，这些海洋古菌群落的组成和生态系统功能在很大程度上仍未知。为了评估德国北海活跃古菌群落的多样性和组成，采集了七个海洋水样，并通过核糖体 16S rRNA 的 RNA 分析进行了研究。为此，从样品中提取总 RNA 并将其转化为 cDNA。通过对 cDNA 生成的 16S rRNA 扩增子进行焦磷酸测序分析，研究了古菌群落结构。据我们所知，这是首次将下一代测序和宏转录组学相结合，用于研究海洋生境中的古菌群落。基于焦磷酸测序的数据集包含 62,045 条古菌 16S rRNA 序列。我们发现，在所有样品中，盐杆菌（Halobacteria）都是主要的古菌群，在藻类大量繁殖时丰度增加。在较少的丰度中鉴定出了热原体目（Euryarchaeota）和海洋 I 组（Thaumarchaeota）。研究表明，古菌群落的模式受到环境条件的影响。
