Research Institute of Engineering and Technology, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China.
Curr Microbiol. 2013 Jul;67(1):41-50. doi: 10.1007/s00284-013-0320-y. Epub 2013 Feb 13.
Marine subsurface sediments represent a novel archaeal biosphere with unknown physiology. To get to know the composition and ecological roles of the archaeal communities within the sediments of the Pearl River Estuary, Southern China, the diversity and vertical distribution of active archaea in a sediment core were characterized by 16S rRNA phylogenetic analysis of clone libraries derived from RNA. In this study, the archaeal diversity above, within, and beneath the sulfate-methane transition zone (SMTZ) in the Pearl River Estuary sediment core was described. The majority of the clones obtained from the metabolically active fraction of the archaeal community were most closely related to miscellaneous crenarchaeotal group and terrestrial miscellaneous euryarchaeotal group. Notably, although the Pearl River Estuary sediment belong to high methane and high organic carbon environment, sequences affiliated with methanotrophic and methanogenic archaea were detected as minor group in 16S rRNA clone libraries. No obvious evidence suggested that these unknown archaeal phylotypes related directly to anaerobic oxidation of methane in SMTZ. This is the first phylogenetic analysis of the metabolically active fraction of the archaeal community in the coastal sediment environments.
海洋底层沉积物代表了一个具有未知生理学的新型古菌生物界。为了了解中国南方珠江口沉积物中古菌群落的组成和生态作用，本研究通过对 RNA 衍生的克隆文库进行 16S rRNA 系统发育分析，对沉积物中活性古菌的多样性和垂直分布进行了研究。本研究描述了珠江口沉积物中硫酸盐-甲烷转换带（SMTZ）上下及内部古菌多样性。从古菌群落代谢活性部分获得的大多数克隆与杂养泉古菌群和陆地杂养广古菌群最为密切相关。值得注意的是，尽管珠江口沉积物属于高甲烷和高有机碳环境，但在 16S rRNA 克隆文库中，检测到与甲烷营养菌和产甲烷菌相关的序列为小类群。没有明显的证据表明这些未知的古菌在 SMTZ 中与甲烷的厌氧氧化有直接关系。这是对沿海沉积物环境中古菌代谢活性部分的首次系统发育分析。
