Redick Margaret A, Cummings Milo E, Neuhaus George F, Ardor Bellucci Lila M, Thurber Andrew R, McPhail Kerry L
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
Department of Microbiology, College of Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
Front Mar Sci. 2023;10. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2023.1197338. Epub 2023 Oct 20.
Deep-sea methane seeps host highly diverse microbial communities whose biological diversity is distinct from other marine habitats. Coupled with microbial community analysis, untargeted metabolomics of environmental samples using high resolution tandem mass spectrometry provides unprecedented access to the unique specialized metabolisms of these chemosynthetic microorganisms. In addition, the diverse microbial natural products are of broad interest due to their potential applications for human and environmental health and well-being. In this exploratory study, sediment cores were collected from two methane seeps (-1000 m water depth) with very different gross geomorphologies, as well as a non-seep control site. Cores were subjected to parallel metabolomic and microbial community analyses to assess the feasibility of representative metabolite detection and identify congruent patterns between metabolites and microbes. Metabolomes generated using high resolution liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry were annotated with predicted structure classifications of the majority of mass features using SIRIUS and CANOPUS. The microbiome was characterized by analysis of 16S rRNA genes and analyzed both at the whole community level, as well as the small subgroup of Actinobacteria, which are known to produce societally useful compounds. Overall, the younger Dagorlad seep possessed a greater abundance of metabolites while there was more variation in abundance, number, and distribution of metabolites between samples at the older Emyn Muil seep. Lipid and lipid-like molecules displayed the greatest variation between sites and accounted for a larger proportion of metabolites found at the older seep. Overall, significant differences in composition of the microbial community mirrored the patterns of metabolite diversity within the samples; both varied greatly as a function of distance from methane seep, indicating a deterministic role of seepage. Interdisciplinary research to understand microbial and metabolic diversity is essential for understanding the processes and role of ubiquitous methane seeps in global systems and here we increase understanding of these systems by visualizing some of the chemical diversity that seeps add to marine systems.
深海甲烷渗漏区拥有高度多样的微生物群落，其生物多样性与其他海洋栖息地不同。结合微生物群落分析，使用高分辨率串联质谱对环境样品进行非靶向代谢组学分析，为研究这些化学合成微生物独特的特殊代谢提供了前所未有的途径。此外，多样的微生物天然产物因其在人类和环境健康与福祉方面的潜在应用而备受关注。在这项探索性研究中，从两个地貌截然不同的甲烷渗漏区（水深 -1000 米）以及一个非渗漏对照点采集了沉积物岩芯。对岩芯进行了平行代谢组学和微生物群落分析，以评估代表性代谢物检测的可行性，并确定代谢物与微生物之间的一致性模式。使用高分辨率液相色谱串联质谱生成的代谢组，通过 SIRIUS 和 CANOPUS 对大多数质量特征进行预测结构分类来注释。通过分析 16S rRNA 基因对微生物群落进行表征，并在整个群落水平以及已知能产生对社会有用化合物的放线菌小亚群水平上进行分析。总体而言，较年轻的达戈拉德渗漏区代谢物丰度更高，而在较老的埃明·缪尔渗漏区，样品之间代谢物的丰度、数量和分布变化更大。脂质和类脂质分子在不同位点间的差异最大，且在较老渗漏区发现的代谢物中占比更大。总体而言，微生物群落组成的显著差异反映了样品中代谢物多样性的模式；两者都随与甲烷渗漏区距离的变化而有很大差异，表明渗漏具有决定性作用。跨学科研究以了解微生物和代谢多样性对于理解全球系统中普遍存在的甲烷渗漏的过程和作用至关重要，在此我们通过可视化渗漏给海洋系统增添的一些化学多样性，增进了对这些系统的理解。
