Horn Point Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), Cambridge, Maryland, USA.
Department of Biological Sciences, Miami University, Middletown, Ohio, USA.
Environ Microbiol. 2022 Dec;24(12):6348-6364. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.16230. Epub 2022 Oct 17.
Cable bacteria are long, filamentous, multicellular bacteria that grow in marine sediments and couple sulfide oxidation to oxygen reduction over centimetre-scale distances via long-distance electron transport. Cable bacteria can strongly modify biogeochemical cycling and may affect microbial community networks. Here we examine interspecific interactions with marine cable bacteria (Ca. Electrothrix) by monitoring the succession of 16S rRNA amplicons (DNA and RNA) and cell abundance across depth and time, contrasting sediments with and without cable bacteria growth. In the oxic zone, cable bacteria activity was positively associated with abundant predatory bacteria (Bdellovibrionota, Myxococcota, Bradymonadales), indicating putative predation on cathodic cells. At suboxic depths, cable bacteria activity was positively associated with sulfate-reducing and magnetotactic bacteria, consistent with cable bacteria functioning as ecosystem engineers that modify their local biogeochemical environment, benefitting certain microbes. Cable bacteria activity was negatively associated with chemoautotrophic sulfur-oxidizing Gammaproteobacteria (Thiogranum, Sedimenticola) at oxic depths, suggesting competition, and positively correlated with these taxa at suboxic depths, suggesting syntrophy and/or facilitation. These observations are consistent with chemoautotrophic sulfur oxidizers benefitting from an oxidizing potential imparted by cable bacteria at suboxic depths, possibly by using cable bacteria as acceptors for electrons or electron equivalents, but by an as yet enigmatic mechanism.
缆线菌是长而丝状的多细胞细菌,生长在海洋沉积物中,通过长距离电子传递,在厘米级距离上将硫化物氧化与氧气还原偶联。缆线菌可以强烈改变生物地球化学循环,可能影响微生物群落网络。在这里,我们通过监测 16S rRNA 扩增子(DNA 和 RNA)和细胞丰度在深度和时间上的演替,来研究海洋缆线菌(Ca. Electrothrix)的种间相互作用,对比有和没有缆线菌生长的沉积物。在好氧区,缆线菌的活性与丰富的捕食细菌(Bdellovibrionota、Myxococcota、Bradymonadales)呈正相关,表明对阴极细胞的潜在捕食。在亚缺氧深度,缆线菌的活性与硫酸盐还原菌和磁细菌呈正相关,这与缆线菌作为生态工程师的功能一致,它们改变了其局部生物地球化学环境,使某些微生物受益。缆线菌的活性与好氧深度的化能自养硫氧化γ变形菌(Thiogranum、Sedimenticola)呈负相关,表明存在竞争,而在亚缺氧深度与这些分类群呈正相关,表明存在共生和/或促进作用。这些观察结果与化能自养硫氧化菌在亚缺氧深度受益于缆线菌提供的氧化潜力的观点一致,可能是通过将缆线菌用作电子或电子当量的受体,但具体机制尚不清楚。