Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA.
BMC Microbiol. 2020 May 18;20(1):119. doi: 10.1186/s12866-020-01768-w.
Ferrovum spp. are abundant in acid mine drainage sites globally where they play an important role in biogeochemical cycling. All known taxa in this genus are Fe(II) oxidizers. Thus, co-occurring members of the genus could be competitors within the same environment. However, we found multiple, co-occurring Ferrovum spp. in Cabin Branch, an acid mine drainage site in the Daniel Boone National Forest, KY.
Here we describe the distribution of Ferrovum spp. within the Cabin Branch communities and metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) of two new Ferrovum spp. In contrast to previous studies, we recovered multiple 16S rRNA gene sequence variants suggesting the commonly used 97% cutoff may not be appropriate to differentiate Ferrovum spp. We also retrieved two nearly-complete Ferrovum spp. genomes from metagenomic data. The genomes of these taxa differ in several key ways relating to nutrient cycling, motility, and chemotaxis.
Previously reported Ferrovum genomes are also diverse with respect to these categories suggesting that the genus Ferrovum contains substantial metabolic diversity. This diversity likely explains how the members of this genus successfully co-occur in Cabin Branch and why Ferrovum spp. are abundant across geochemical gradients.
在全球范围内的酸性矿山排水点，Ferrovum 属物种丰富，它们在生物地球化学循环中起着重要作用。该属的所有已知分类群都是 Fe(II)氧化菌。因此，同一环境中的属内共存成员可能是竞争者。然而，我们在肯塔基州丹尼尔·布恩国家森林的酸性矿山排水点 Cabin Branch 中发现了多个共存的 Ferrovum 属物种。
在这里，我们描述了 Ferrovum 属在 Cabin Branch 群落中的分布情况，以及两个新的 Ferrovum 属的宏基因组组装基因组（MAG）。与之前的研究不同，我们回收了多个 16S rRNA 基因序列变体，这表明常用的 97% 截断值可能不适合区分 Ferrovum 属物种。我们还从宏基因组数据中检索到了两个近乎完整的 Ferrovum 属基因组。这些分类群的基因组在与营养循环、运动和趋化性相关的几个关键方面存在差异。
以前报道的 Ferrovum 基因组在这些方面也存在多样性，这表明 Ferrovum 属包含大量的代谢多样性。这种多样性可能解释了为什么该属的成员能够成功地在 Cabin Branch 共存，以及为什么 Ferrovum 属在地球化学梯度上如此丰富。
