School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
College of Geosciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA.
Microbiome. 2018 Jul 5;6(1):123. doi: 10.1186/s40168-018-0505-5.
Glaciers cover ~ 10% of land but are among the least explored environments on Earth. The basal portion of glaciers often harbors unique aquatic microbial ecosystems in the absence of sunlight, and knowledge on the microbial community structures and their metabolic potential is very limited. Here, we provide insights into the microbial lifestyle present at the base of the Matanuska Glacier, Alaska.
DNA and RNA were extracted from samples of the Matanuska Glacier basal ice. Using Illumina MiSeq and HiSeq sequencing, we investigated the microbial diversity with the metagenomic shotgun reads and 16S ribosomal RNA data. We further assembled 9 partial and draft bacterial genomes from the metagenomic assembly, and identified key metabolic pathways such as sulfur oxidation and nitrification. Collectively, our analyses suggest a prevalence of lithotrophic and heterotrophic metabolisms in the subglacial microbiome.
Our results present the first metagenomic assembly and bacterial draft genomes for a subglacial environment. These results extend our understanding of the chemical and biological processes in subglacial environments critically influenced by global climate change.
冰川覆盖了地球表面约 10%的面积，但却是地球上探索最少的环境之一。在没有阳光的情况下，冰川的底部通常存在独特的水生微生物生态系统，而关于这些微生物群落结构及其代谢潜力的知识非常有限。在这里，我们深入了解了位于阿拉斯加马塔努斯卡冰川底部的微生物生活方式。
从马塔努斯卡冰川底部冰的样本中提取了 DNA 和 RNA。我们使用 Illumina MiSeq 和 HiSeq 测序技术，通过宏基因组 shotgun 测序和 16S 核糖体 RNA 数据来研究微生物多样性。我们进一步从宏基因组组装中组装了 9 个部分和草案细菌基因组，并鉴定了关键的代谢途径，如硫氧化和硝化。总的来说，我们的分析表明，在冰川底部微生物组中存在着自养和异养代谢的普遍性。
我们的研究结果提供了首个有关冰川底部环境的宏基因组组装和细菌草案基因组。这些结果扩展了我们对受全球气候变化影响的冰川底部环境中化学和生物过程的理解。
