College of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Deiniol Road, Bangor, LL57 2UW, UK.
Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden.
Life (Basel). 2013 Feb 7;3(1):189-210. doi: 10.3390/life3010189.
A nine year study was carried out on the evolution of macroscopic "acid streamer" growths in acidic, metal-rich mine water from the point of construction of a new channel to drain an abandoned underground copper mine. The new channel became rapidly colonized by acidophilic bacteria: two species of autotrophic iron-oxidizers (Acidithiobacillus ferrivorans and "Ferrovum myxofaciens") and a heterotrophic iron-oxidizer (a novel genus/species with the proposed name "Acidithrix ferrooxidans"). The same bacteria dominated the acid streamer communities for the entire nine year period, with the autotrophic species accounting for ~80% of the micro-organisms in the streamer growths (as determined by terminal restriction enzyme fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis). Biodiversity of the acid streamers became somewhat greater in time, and included species of heterotrophic acidophiles that reduce ferric iron (Acidiphilium, Acidobacterium, Acidocella and gammaproteobacterium WJ2) and other autotrophic iron-oxidizers (Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans). The diversity of archaea in the acid streamers was far more limited; relatively few clones were obtained, all of which were very distantly related to known species of euryarchaeotes. Some differences were apparent between the acid streamer community and planktonic-phase bacteria. This study has provided unique insights into the evolution of an extremophilic microbial community, and identified several novel species of acidophilic prokaryotes.
一项为期九年的研究针对从建造新渠道以排干废弃地下铜矿时的初始点出发,考察酸性富金属矿山水中宏观“酸性流纹”生长的演变。新渠道迅速被嗜酸细菌定殖:两种自养铁氧化菌(嗜酸硫杆菌和“嗜酸铁钩端螺旋菌”)和一种异养铁氧化菌(一种具有暂定名“嗜酸氧化亚铁硫杆菌”的新属/种)。同一细菌在整个九年期间主导酸性流纹菌群,自养物种占流纹生长物中微生物的~80%(通过末端限制性酶片段长度多态性(T-RFLP)分析确定)。随着时间的推移,酸性流纹的生物多样性变得更大,包括能够还原三价铁的异养嗜酸菌(嗜酸菌、嗜酸杆菌、嗜酸菌属和γ变形菌 WJ2)和其他自养铁氧化菌(嗜酸硫杆菌和氧化亚铁钩端螺旋菌)。酸性流纹中古菌的多样性要有限得多;获得的克隆相对较少,且都与广古菌门的已知物种关系非常远。在酸性流纹菌群和浮游细菌之间存在一些明显的差异。本研究为极端微生物群落的进化提供了独特的见解,并鉴定了几种新的嗜酸原核生物。